A True Heir
by McSlick
Summary: UP FOR ADOPTION! SEE LATEST CHAPTER FOR DETAILS!
1. Gringott's

It had been two weeks. Two whole weeks since Sirius had died. He still couldn't wrap his head around it, it felt so unreal. Slowly, Harry began understanding that Sirius was truly never coming back.

"AAARRGH!' Harry screamed as he fell onto his pillow.

"BOY! Was that you up there? You better stop that racket before we throw you out, you hear me?" Uncle Vernon's muffled voice was heard throughout the house.

Harry turned over on his bed. Hedwig flew into his room with another letter. _Must be Hermione trying to get me to "vent" again, _he thought. Over the past week Ron and Hermione had written to him several times. Harry was beginning to become annoyed at them. What was there to vent? Sirius was dead, it was his fault, that was that. Why the bloody hell did they keep telling him that he needed to talk to them?

As Harry went to throw the letter across the room but stopped. That handwriting wasn't Hermione's, and it certainly wasn't Ron's… As he opened it up, he saw that it was actually a letter from Ginny. Huh.

Harry sat up on the bed and began reading the letter.

_Harry,_

_The past week has been very hectic. I'm not sure if Ron has told you, but we are almost completely moved out of the Burrow. You know where we moved. I'm not sure if Ron told you because I know that he has been sending you mail about every second your owl comes by. Today I decided I would just give you a break because honestly, it's annoying me, so I can't even imagine what you might be feeling right now. _

_And is it me or has Hermione begun to go a bit over board with the whole control thing that she has going on? I mean, I told her yesterday that you were probably just stressed out so that's why you hadn't written back (I don't blame you by the way) and she freaked out and told me that I should try to get you to "vent" along with her and Ron. Whatever that means, don't worry, I'm not doing that. But, I am here if you want to talk, but you know that you don't need to. You don't owe me explanations and you shouldn't feel as if you do either. _

_Sirius was not your fault. I know that you feel differently, but Sirius was a big boy. He died doing what he thought was the right thing. He didn't die in a prison cell, or in his "home" like Dumbledore probably thought he should do (honestly, he never let him out anywhere) and he died helping you Harry, doing the things that needed to be done to save you. I know that for some reason that prophecy was very important, so if Sirius died to get it for you, I think that you shouldn't hold a grudge. I'm just going to assume that it has something or everything to do with the war, and we know Sirius was doing everything that he could to end it._

_Tensions are running high here. Since Sirius died, no one really knows who the true owner of the house is, making it very hard to sleep at night not knowing if a Death Eater is going to just come walking in one day. Remus and Tonks don't seem to mind staying up late together keeping watch though (finally they get together). _

_Anyway, if you find yourself bored (like I do right now), please write to me. You can tell me about how fat that cousin of yours is._

_With love,_

_Ginny_

Harry couldn't help but smile at that last bit. Dudders had slimmed out a few pounds over the year, but just a few.

He re-read the letter and decided that he would very much enjoy writing to Ginny. He sent a letter off to her and asked Hedwig be discreet, to which she hooted and flew off. Not more than five minutes after he sent off a letter to Ginny did another owl fly through his window. It was a large barn owl carrying a note for Mr. H. Potter.

Harry picked up the note, gave the owl a treat and sat on his bed.

_Mr. Harry James Potter,_

_Gringott's is in order to inform you that your account has been modified in some ways. Since you are of age in the Goblin community, we would like you to come to the bank and meet with Bognok later today at 4. _

_We are very discreet and will not let anyone know of this meeting._

_Sincerely,_

_Ritnot Sr._

Harry began thinking for a moment. This would be perfect. He could go to Gringott's, get some money for clothes, food, anything that he might need, and come back. But, how would he get there…

"Dobby!" Harry said out loud, before he had a chance to stop the words from getting out.

With a loud pop the small house elf was standing in front of Harry. "Mr. Harry Potter sir! You's has called on Dobby? It is so good to see you Mr. Harry Potter! The best wizard in all of Britain!"

Harry laughed, "Dobby, it's so good to see you. How have you been?"

"Dobby has been very good sir. Dobby has been quite bored though, there are no students at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore is wanting to give the house-elves a break for the summer."

Harry nodded. "Well, if you aren't too busy, would you mind helping me for a little while today?"

Dobby's eyes seemed to light up at the idea. "Yes,! Dobby would love to help the greatest wizard master Harry!"

"Can you take me to Diagon Alley later then?"

"It would be my pleasure sir!" Harry smiled at Dobby. "Would master like his room cleaned?"

Harry looked around. It was pretty messy, but he didn't want to force the house elf into doing anything he didn't want to do. "If you would like to Dobby, but you really don't have to."

"Dobby wants to clean for Harry Potter!"

"Alright then, I'll go get ready to leave and you can clean my room. But please don't leave the room, my relatives would freak out if they saw you again."

Dobby looked slightly angry suddenly, "Those pig nosed… Have they been treating master nicely?"

"Dobby, please don't call me master, but, they haven't been treating me too badly yet." He looked at the still angry Dobby, "But I don't think that will be a problem much longer."

Harry walked to the bathroom and showered. Dudley had recently learned the art of gelling his hair, much to Harry's amusement. As Harry looked in the mirror he noticed that he must have grown slightly these past weeks. He put a little bit of gel in his hair and tried to style it. Surprisingly, it looked very good gelled into a windswept sculpture as if he had just gotten off of a broom. He made sure that his hair was covering his scar though. That was the point after all.

When Harry got back to his room, he had hardly recognized it. It was spotless. Dobby had even cleaned Hedwig's cage. Harry noticed that there was a small pile of sweets in a bowl by his bed.

"Dobby, this is fantastic!" he said to Dobby who was now folding the last of Harry's huge shirts.

"Master Harry Potter is too kind… What time is we leaving sir?" Harry looked at the time and decided that they were going to be late if they didn't leave soon.

"Would you mind leaving now Dobby? I just have to get my cloak."

"Yes, nows is fine. Here you go Harry Potter, I folded the cloak and hid it ins your pillow case." Harry noticed a very smug grin on Dobby's face.

"Very good idea Dobby, thank you." He put the cloak over himself and told Dobby that they needed to go to Gringott's to meet with a goblin by the name of Bognok. Dobby disapparated them straight to Bognok's office. "Thank you Dobby. Would you like to wait with me?"

"It would be Dobby's honor, Harry Potter sir," he said thanking Harry.

A goblin walked into the room. He looked at Harry as he took off the cloak and went to his desk. "Please place a few drops of blood on this parchment." Harry nodded and made a small cut with a pricker that the goblin had given him in his wrist. As the blood spilled out onto the paper he saw words appear.

_Mr. Harry James Potter_

_Vaults: _

_Harry Potter tuition, Potter, Smit, White, Black, and Gryffindor_

_Properties:_

_Homes: Godric's Hollow, Montrino's Cove, Trianly's Village (4), Isolate locations in Germany (2), France, Italy (3), and Number 12 Grimmauld Place_

_Apartments: London (4), currently all rented out._

_Land: Egypt, France, Scotland, Netherlands (2), and Italy_

_Hotels: Paris, Holland_

_Islands: Gryffindor Isle Estate_

"What?" Harry asked the goblin, dumb-struck. The goblin himself turned, impressed, to look clearly at Harry.

"I do apologize, my name is Bognok." Harry nodded to say hello, but really couldn't talk at the moment. "I understand that you are now over 15 years of age, are you not?"

Harry nodded again, "Yeah, I am turning 16 soon. Is that a problem?"

"No, no, not a problem at all. Goblin's come to age at the age of 15. We are sorry that this is the first you have been informed of all of your wealth. We had tried to contact you on your birthday last year, but we had a request from your headmaster to wait until you were older."

_He told them to wait? Did he even know about all of this? He always thinks he can take over everything. He wouldn't let me help with the order, he always forces me back into that horrible house for the summers, never even treating me like the grown man I should be treated as. That's it. I am through with him. _Harry was thinking all of these things as he sat down in a chair in front of the Goblin's desk.

"But, with the recent change of a main account, the Black account, we had to inform you of the new properties, the one in Italy and 12 Grimmauld Place."

Harry looked up at Bognok, "Did Dumbledore know about my bank account status?"

Bognok shook his head, "No, he would not have been informed since he is neither parent nor a guardian. It is strictly against our rules to discuss any of the vaults and their contents with anyone other than the owner of the vault itself."

"Oh, well thank you. Also, it says that there is a White Vault, a Smit Vault, and a Potter Vault? I thought I had all of the contents of the Potter Vault, and I have no clue as to why the Gryffindor vault would be there as well."

"Well," Bognok started, "when the people or families of old pure blood backgrounds die out, they tend to leave their money with other pure blood families, such as the Potter or the Black families. When the White's had died they left their vault to the Potters, and when the Smit's had died they left their vaults to the Black's." Then Bognok smiled at Harry. "And since you are also heir to Gryffindor, the last known heir, you have every right to fully access the Gryffindor vault. Please take note that the Gryffindor Vault has not been opened since hundreds of years ago, so the interest has accumulated into quite an amount over the years. As well as that of the Black and Potters although they have been used over the years."

"I am heir of Gryffindor?" Bognok nodded. "Why hasn't the vault been opened in so long?"

"Well, the vault itself was kept a secret for so long that the families must have started a new one, such as the Potter vault, and forgotten about it. And no one has every had a blood check in your family, or if they did they just chose not to open the Vault."

"I knew Harry Potter was a great wizard!" Dobby squeaked in the corner.

"Would you like to visit your vaults, Mr. Potter?"

***

When Bognok took Harry to the entrance of the path, Harry stopped for a moment. "Excuse me, Bognok, are you taking me down?"

Bognok looked up at Harry, slightly startled, "Well, yes, that- that isn't a problem is it?"

"No, no, er, it's just that usually Griphook goes with me to the vault…" he said scratching his head.

"Oh." Said the surprised goblin, "these vaults are extremely old, very valuable. Usually we have an older goblin go with the wizard."

"Would it be alright if we invited Griphook? I thought I would say hi while I was here…"

"S-sure."

"Mr. Harry Potter sir is a wonderful sir!" said Dobby.

Harry chuckled and turned to him. "What makes you say that Dobby?"

"Well Harry Potter, yous is not only letting a house elfs go with you to your family vaults, but also invited Griphook! That is quite unheard of Mr. Harry Potter sir!" Dobby's eyes were wide with wonder.

"Oh, well, I just thought that Griphook wouldn't mind coming along. It seemed as if he were a tiny bit nicer to me each time I came, so I just wanted to continue down that street."

Griphook came around the corner looking surprised and very happy. Harry smiled and stuck his hand out. "Griphook, it is good to see you! Would you mind escorting me and Dobby with Bognok to some of my newly acquired vaults?"

Griphook looked like he had no idea what to do with Harry's extended hand. Then he realized that he was trying to shake hands with him and smiled a true smile at Harry, shaking with him. "It would be an honor, sir!"

Harry shook his head, "Oh stop, it's Harry and thank you for agreeing to come."

Bognok looked at Harry in a new light. As they descended into the cave on the boat, Bognok just could contain his curiosity any longer. "Mr. Potter, may I please ask you a personal question, sir?"

Harry looked startled but nodding in agreement. "I noticed that you shook hands with Griphook. May I ask why?"

Harry looked confused for a second before answering. "Well, that's just what people do. I never really thought about why."

"No, excuse me sir, you misunderstood. Why did you treat him like an equal?" Then Harry understood.

"Oh. Well, I just don't really think of you any differently than I would of a wizard or witch. I treat everyone with the same respect. I'm sure you remember Hagrid who is part giant? Well I treat him the same way I would anyone else. I just thought that Griphook deserved my respect, since he has done business with me before and I found him to be helpful. Why would I treat him any differently?"

"You are truly one of a kind Mr. Potter." Said Griphook, touched by Harry's words.

"Please, call me Harry. Mr. Potter was my grandfather, I'm sure." The two goblins smiled.

"Mr. Harry Potter sir, Dobby is very thankful for coming on this trip with you."

"No problem Dobby, I wanted you to come. I really don't know what to expect."

"To be honest, I'm not sure many know what to expect in the Gryffindor vault." Griphook was steering the boat, taking directions from Bognok.

"Yes, I have never even been inside. Only two or three over the years might have, just to add some money from interest."

"Then is it safe to assume that you two are excited as well?" Harry was smiling at the two goblins. It was surprising him how happy he felt today. He hadn't felt this happy, well maybe not happy, but this not sad since the Weasley's ultimate prank.

"Excited?" Bognok was looking at Harry as if he had two heads. "I doubt that that even scratches the surface! And I am sure that Griphook here is doubly so, he hasn't even been in the vaults of some of the richer families yet."

Griphook was beaming at Harry, "Bognok is all too right! You don't understand what an honor this is to a goblin, and a _request? _There has never been a request before in the banking history, at least I don't think there has?" He turned his head to Bognok.

"I agree, I had never even heard of a Wizard requesting the service of a goblin before. Harry, you might not realize it, but you have just promoted Griphook several times over. He is now in the same position as me, and I have been working here for over 100 years."

Harry did not know how much commotion he had apparently stirred in the bank. He looked up at Griphook as the goblin began talking again. "I will forever be at your services as well Harry, I will do all of your banking for you, even contact you daily if you so please. I am in your debt."

He started blushing, "No, I don't want you to think that you owe me anything. I just wanted your company was all. And I am happy that I could do something for you. I know that you probably aren't treated well by many wizards, but they are mostly jerks. I honestly don't see what's so bad about goblins, I mean, I am having a good time with you fellas."

The goblins smiled a wide smile and looked at each other than at Harry. "Well, sir, we are nearing. I must ask that you pay close attention, there is a lot of magic down here and we wouldn't want anything bad to happen." The boat stopped and the two goblins rushed over to the entrance. "I would also like you to know, Mr. Potter, that although the Whites were one of your vaults, their vault is attached to the inside of the Potter vault, though represented as a separate room. Take as much time as you please." Bognok turned to instruct Griphook on the proper hand movement and finger as well as the charm they had to cast to get inside.

"You mean you two don't want to come in?" Harry asked them.

The goblins looked at each other again, and just smiled at Harry. "We would love to! And since there are two of us, we can! I'll watch the doorway first Bognok, and you can go ahead with Harry first."

The goblin opened the vault and let Harry enter first. As Harry walked in, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. There had to be millions of galleons inside. Not only were there galleons, but there were antiques and papers and book selves stacked with more and more books. "Dobby?" Harry called out.

Dobby rushed over. "Yes Harry Potter master?"

"Please stop calling me master, and, do you think you would be able to find a latter anywhere around here? I would like to look at some of those books near the top, but don't know how to reach."

"Yes, Dobby is on it Harry Potter Sir." Harry just stood around looking at all of the riches.

"Bognok? What do you think the most valuable thing is in here?" Harry asked him.

Bognok looked around. "I am actually not sure, Harry, but would you like for me to like around and see?"

"If you would like to, I wouldn't mind."

Bognok bowed to Harry. "I would love to Harry."

Harry walked around the huge stack and found portraits on one side of the room. In there other room, which he thought to be the Whites, Harry saw piles upon piles of precious jewels and fine jewelry. In this one as well he saw many books, some looked to be very old and hand written.

"Harry Potter, I think I have found one of the more valuables in the area." In front of the goblin was a huge black diamond. The diamond was not cut or finished, not by any means, but there wasn't a flaw on it. Harry looked all over it and smiled at Bognok.

"That's very nice Bognok, thank you. Can you try to hide it somewhere, I don't want anyone to find it, I think I know what I want to do with it one day. If you find anything interesting, don't hesitate to call."

"I will enjoy to hear what you have done with this when you do decide to do something with it. I am going to tell Griphook to come in. Do you need anything else?"

"No I am fine, but can you please tell Griphook to come in and look for the most valuable thing as well?"

"Certainly Harry."

Harry look around, smirking to himself. That diamond has to be one of the greatest things he had ever seen. The goblins will surely enjoy it.

"Griphook, do you think that the Gryffindor vault would be suitable for me to continue on to? I doubt that there are too many other things in there that aren't in here…"

"Of course Harry. Lets continue on then." The goblin said walking into the room. "But, I do want to show you what I thought would be the most valuable item, to you, in this room."

Griphook walked over to the Potter vault again and pointed to a portrait in the back that had two people on it. "No…" Harry whispered. He full out sprinted to the portrait and stared. "Dad? Mum?" he cried looking at his parents.

"Harry! Hunny! I wish this weren't the way that you would be forced to speak to us. I love you so much!" Lily said to her son, crying also.

"Son, you have your mother's eyes…" his father said, also tearing up.

"How- why- I love you." Harry said, feeling faint.

"Are you okay Harry? You should sit. What's happened? You don't look healthy, is the war still going on?"

"Mum, the wars still going on… just, I really do have your eyes." He smiled at his dad, "But I have your quiditch skill." James smiled a proud smile and pumped his hand in the air giving a "whoop" while Lily slapped his arm. Harry turned back to his mum and got serious again. "Yes, the war is still going. It started up as I won the Tri-wizard Tournament."

"You WHAT?" his parents said together. Harry smiled. "I thought you would like to know that. This past year I broke into the Department of Mysteries and broke almost all of the prophecies in there as part of an elaborate trap of Voldemort's to attempt to murder me, and hear our prophecy. But-" he started breaking down then, "I fell for the trap and Sirius, he died! I killed him! Bellatrix shot the spell, but I know that it was really me who killed him Dad, I'm so sorry." And he started crying. Griphook was now patting Harry's back and Dobby was giving Harry a tissue. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"Harry, you didn't kill him. He is happy here on the other side playing pranks with me and bickering with your mum. I promise. And he would be jinxing you like you were his brother. And, mind you, he did NOT like his brother." That made Harry laugh. "Thanks Dad."

They stared at each other for a moment before Harry spoke up again. "Mum, Dad, if I thought that Dumbledore was doing something wrong, would it be wrong if I started training and, well, not going against him, but going my own route?"

"Harry, you have the blood of the Potters in you. There is no way that you could ever be misguided from your heart. Just follow what you know is right."

Lily was nodding with her husband, "And always, just trust that one person who you fall in love with and never let them go. And please," she said looking straight at Harry, creating a link of green between the two eyes, "chase the one you love until you catch them. It's worth it." She said then looking at her husband who was hugging his wife then turned to Harry, "If you have to run for years Harry, you make that run. Never give up on love."

"Yes Dad." James and Lily smiled at their son as he turned away and walked with Griphook to the entrance.

"Are you alright Harry?" said the concerned goblin closing the vault off.

"Yes, Bognok, I just had my first talk ever with my parents. Even if it wasn't entirely real, it felt real, and that's all that matters to me."

"You are very wise Harry. Too far beyond your years. Then again, I suppose you have to be. With that dirt snake still searching for you."

Harry laughed. "Too right you are my good sir. Now, lets see what the Gryffindor Vault is all about!"

The two goblins were very excited as they went as quickly as they could to one of the first Vaults ever built. They leaped out and both repeated something that Harry did not understand. Griphook placed his hand on the entrance and it melted away. All four of them gasped. "This is…"

"There's so much…"

"I've never…"

"Sir Harry Potter is incredible…"

They walked into the vault that was easily the size of a mansion with HUGE piles of gems and stacks upon stacks of galleons. There were more books than in the other vault and Hogwarts put together. Harry raced over to a portrait of Gryffindor and smiled at him. "Sir, I am in your house at Hogwarts and am very proud of it too sir."

The portrait gave a hearty laugh then looked Harry up and down. "If you are, and you are my heir, then please, take anything and everything. Especially my portrait. There isn't much to do around here…" Harry laughed and promised he would get around to it someday.

Harry went over to the books and noticed a trunk that was very large. He attempted to open the trunk, but found it sealed. He touched the tip of his wand to the trunk and it popped open. Well that was odd.

Harry looked into the trunk and couldn't believe what he saw. He climbed into the trunk and found an entire apartment inside. "I love magic…" he said. He looked around, completely stunned. It was very dirty, but he could clean it up. He noticed a table with a note on it.

_Hello my friend, my family. I am sure that I am well gone if you can read this. The charms would only let you in if such were true, and if you were one of my heir. But, I would like to say, welcome. This just might be the ultimate place in the wizarding world. I know what you are thinking, it's just another extended compartment of a trunk. But let me stop your thoughts there. It is not._

_Yes, there is something much different about this compartment. Since you have opened it, you are no doubt under the age of 17. Not yet legal in either the muggle or wizarding worlds. Ha! I stumped you, I know. This is part of the charm, my friend. Only someone in need of this trunk will be able to open it. You may use magic in here as well. Just tap each cushion of the couch with your wand and turn the lamp on and off. The room will change much like a room in Hogwarts called the room of requirement. Just think of what you need to do and the room will change based on what you need to get done. _

_Also, please enjoy this trunk like I have. I know that it isn't too much, but it is very valuable. you will find that I will help you since you obviously need it, since I let you in. You will not be able to apparate into the compartment, although house elves might be able to. _

_May love inspire the courage in your heart._

_Godric Gryffindor_

Harry was stunned when he left the trunk. He immediately asked if it would be possible to bring it home to which Dobby said he would do it himself.

"Griphook, Bognok, would you mind answering a question for me? How do I remove all of these books and place them in a home? I mean, I don't want to yet, but I would love to be able to someday."

"Very good question sir. We have much of the same magically powers as house elves, we would be able to apparate all of it in and out no problem," Bognok answered.

"Very well. Also, is there any way I can have something to put some money in? I forgot to bring a bag."

Griphook laughed and shook his head, "Harry Potter, I am going to give you a gift today, just because you have made me one of the most highly regarded goblins in the business, I am going to give you a Money Bag. It is much like a muggle 'wallet' I believe, except you open it up and instead of there being money, there is a black hole and you say how much money you need and you just pour it out. Of course there are different varieties of the money bag, but they are mostly made for women and the men tend to just use the wallet."

"You don't have to give it to me Griphook…" the goblin waved him off as he snapped his fingers and gave Harry a new wallet. "Try it out sir. It is connected to your smallest bank account, the only one you were aware of until today, and once that runs out it will automatically go to the next smallest account. This ensures that you will get the maximum interest possible for your vaults."

Harry thanked the Goblin profusely and decided that it would be smart to get a few books while he was down here. He chose very interesting ones that he thought would benefit him most:

_Wandless magic : True magic_

_Animagi : Everything you want to know_

_Wards : Basic _

_Wards : Advanced _

_Healing : Beginner 1_

_Glamour : Without the sparkles, with the sparks_

"Dobby, would you be able to shrink these as well as the trunk and make them normal size when we arrive at the house?"

"Dobby would love to Harry Potter sir!"

"Griphook! Bognok! Whenever you're ready, I am!" Harry shouted through the vault. He stepped outside and waited with Dobby.

"Sorry Harry, we were just so amazed!"

Harry laughed and they went back to Bognok's room they were in earlier. "Alright Harry, this is the final stop, here are the properties that you own with the infidelus charm upon them. After Sirius' death, you are the secret keeper and owner of Grimauld Place and Potter Mansion. Here are the forms with the names of people able to go in and out of each house. All you have to do is cross out a name and it will erase from the paper and that person will be unable to enter. You add the name if you want them to be able to enter." Harry stared, yet again, amazed at the new information.

"Thank you so much Bognok," Harry stuck out his hand for the goblin to shake it and did the same for Griphook who was trying to thank Harry again. "Nonsense, and I'm sure I am going to take you up on that offer to help me with the family investments." Harry winked at him and Dobby said goodbye and they left.


	2. Dudley?

Dobby and Harry apparated straight back to Harry's rom.

"AH!" screamed Dudley toppling over himself. Harry had jumped slightly but sighed and walked over to his cousin on the floor.

"Big-D, what ever are you doing in my bedroom?" Harry offered his hand to Dudley who was hesitant to accept, but did after a few seconds.

"I just wanted to ask you something…" he looked over at Dobby with a questioning look, then turned back to ask. "Wha-"

"It's a house elf," Harry explained, sitting on his bed. "He is a friend of mine. Dobby, this is my cousin, Dudley. Dudley, Dobby."

Dobby stared down Dudley, "Is this the mean brat who was nasty to master Harry?"

Harry snickered. "Yeah, but don't worry about it Dobby. And don't call me master please. Anyway, back to more pressing matters, do you need something?" He turned back to Dudley who was still studying Dobby.

"Yeah…" he looked at Harry. "Um, well, I know that your God-father died," Harry took a far away look into Sirius' face as Dudley continued, "And I just was wondering if you could tell me what happened."

Harry looked at Dudley as if he had dumped a bucket on him. "What?"

Dudley sighed. "Well, it's just that last year you were talking about that Voldy guy and how your friend Ceder died because a war was starting again or something… and…" he looked away, "well, two of my friends died this year in 'accidents' but I don't think they really were."

Harry nodded, understanding what Dudley was talking about. "Yeah, yeah Voldemort is after muggles and muggle families with wizards in them."

"Muggles?" he asked.

"Non-magic folk."

"Oh." he nodded. "Well, could you just tell me what has really been going on? I hate not knowing…"

Harry looked at Dudley and studied him. He looks so much different. Had Harry really not realize how much Dudley had changed? He must have noticed something because in the letter he said Dudley lost some weight, but this was the first time it was really registering with Harry. He was much more muscular and less fat. There was no acne on his teenage face, and the hair that Harry had been snickering about all summer actually looked good groomed up in wavy locks. "When did you change so much?"

Harry hadn't actually been talking only about what Dudley looked like, but as a person also. Now that he thought about it, Dudley hadn't been nasty once this break. He was even being moderately _nice_. And the conversation was being held without anyone screaming or punching.

Dudley shrugged. "I don't know. When my friends died I just realized that I had wasted my life being ignorant I suppose. It's not all my fault mind you, but I just stopped hanging out with that crew and thought that I would shape up before I got picked off as well."

"That's quite the change you made. I have to say that I am impressed. I really would have never expected this from you."

"Yeah. Well, anyway… is there a war?"

"Yes. And quite frankly, I am the only one who can stop it, and I am the only one being held back."

Dudley looked at him, suspicious. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, Voldemort, the super evil magic guy, he killed my parents because of a prophecy that was told about him and me, and when he tried to kill me, he died." Harry revealed his scar. "That was how I got this. But I am the only person ever to have had the killing curse cast upon me and survive. So because I killed Voldemort when he tried to kill me, basically I have to kill him again."

Dudley really didn't know what to say to that. He opened his mouth a few times and nothing came out. Finally he said, "Why can't you do anything?"

Harry looked away, glaring at the wall. "Dumbledore, that really old guy with funny clothes, he is in charge of the Order, the people who are going to kill Voldemort and his followers, and he isn't letting me join because he thinks I am still a child!" He shook his head and looked back at Dudley, expecting him to say something.

"So he's treating you like a weapon?"

Harry gaped for a second, and then came back to his senses. "Exactly."

"Where were you today?" Dudley asked after they both finally gripped the unbelievable reality.

"I was a at bank. Apparently, I am the wealthiest man in Britain."

Dudley's eyebrows skyrocketed. "What are you doing here then? If I could, I would be gone," he snapped his fingers, "like that."

Harry smiled, liking the new Dudley. "Well, what would you do with all of the money in the world then, Dudders?"

"Get a car first!" Harry laughed at him, but then got a good idea.

"Can you drive, Dudley?" he asked him.

"Yeah, learned last year. Why?"

Harry thought about it for a minute, and then decided it was a good idea. "Well, I really have nothing to spend this money on anyway, so if I bought you a car, would you agree to teaching me how to drive?"

Dudley looked like dementors just attacked him again. "Would I ever! Harry, are you being serious?" He nodded. "When can we go?"

Harry laughed. "When do you think your _Dad_ can take us?"

He shrugged. "He'll go tonight if you want. Are you sure you want to get me a car? I have only been a prat to you all my life."

"You may not know it Dudley, but sometimes I wish for the good ol' days when you would try to punch me, and I would run away. Before all this 'funny business' and especially before this damn war."

"Oh. Well, can you go tonight? Shopping usually helps me feel better."

"Alright. Just go ask your Dad."

Dudley ran downstairs. Harry could hear the muffled voices, but not really what they were saying. Hedwig flew through the window with a letter. "Thanks girl," he said taking the letter from her and giving her a treat. She hooted and went to her newly cleaned cage.

"Mr. Harry Potter, would you be needing anything else?" Dobby asked him.

Harry smiled. "No, but thank you very much Dobby. Today was the best in my vacation yet. Would you mind coming back tomorrow though? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Dobby would love to Harry Potter!" He bobbed his head, said goodbye, and disapparated.

Harry looked over the letter Hedwig had.

_Harry,_

_I was very surprised to see Hedwig back with a letter for me. I didn't think that you would write back, but I am very happy that you did. To answer some of your questions, no, Fred and Gorge have been 'accepted' yet. Yes, I saw Remus and Tonks with my own eyes. No, Ron and Hermione haven't declared love for each other yet. Buckbeak is doing well, I hang out with him a lot. It is very busy right now, and I know you are going to get mad, but I really can't tell you too much about that… And, yeah, I think I have accepted the death of Sirius. _

_Sirius and I did talk a lot last year. He would always talk about you though, always so proud. He thought that you and I were going to get married one day, but only because I have red hair. Do you believe that? I know, it was barking mad (lame one, I realized after I wrote it)… nonetheless, Sirius is probably very thoroughly enjoying his time with your father and himself. _

_Mum has been going crazy trying to get Dumbledore to get you to come back here. He just won't budge. Keeps saying it would put the wrong 'ideas' in your head. I honestly have no idea what he thinks those ideas would be, but never mind that. _

_Gorge almost blew up Kreature yesterday. It was an accident, but very funny. We'll end up telling you about it probably, but I thought it was great. Hermione- not so much._

_It's good that your family hasn't given you any problems. Unlike my family. Can't they just give a girl some space? Honestly, it is truly ridiculous. Whenever I want to hangout with someone, they are always being all secretive, and then when I want to be left alone, they want to know what's 'wrong'. Bloody annoying._

_I hope to see you soon though. I'm not worried, you'll come up with someway to see my by the end of the summer, I'm sure of it._

_With love,_

_Ginny_

Harry chuckled at the letter and decided that he would write to Ginny tomorrow. Dudley and Uncle Vernon were both up the stairs a few minutes later.

"Harry, tell him, he doesn't believe me."

"What? That I'm buying you a car?" He looked at his stout uncle. "I'm buying him a car."

At that the man gave a smirk. "With what money, boy?"

Harry smirked right back. "The fortune that makes me the riches man in Britain. That money."

His uncle looked shocked then said, "Prove it."

Harry pulled out his wallet, hoping that it would be able to give him muggle money instead of the galleons he had experimented with earlier. "Ten pounds." He said to the wallet. When he stuck his hand in, he grabbed the paper money and took it out.

"Nonsense, that was already in there."

Harry sighed, pretending to be bored after he realized that his wallet would indeed change the money. "One-thousand pounds," he said. He pulled out a few hundred pounds. His uncle gasped and his cousin looked like he won the lotto.

"Can we go?" Harry said, getting off his bed, "I may not feel this generous later." He winked at Dudley.

They were at the car dealer almost as quick as by magic. Harry told Dudley to pick out any car. He picked an Audi TT. It was expensive, but Harry got a great deal since he paid full in cash.

"I really don't understand you, Harry, but this is amazing!" said Dudley, and then he turned serious again. "Thank you."

Harry smiled again. "Your welcome. Now, lets you and I go for a ride. I want to see what that girls got!"

Dudley all but ran to the car and hopped in. They could hear Uncle Vernon calling out something, but it was lost in the roar of the engine, and squeal of the wheels. Dudley drove around for an hour or so, just getting used to his new car, slowly teaching Harry the rules of the road as they went.

A bit later that night, as Harry was reading his new book on Occumulancy, Dudley walked into his room again. "Harry?"

Harry looked up from his book at his cousin. "To what do I owe the pleasure Big-D?"

Dudley grimaced at the use of his old nickname. "Well, Dad and I had a fight over the car. And…" he looked at Harry, "Well, we had a fight about you in general. I think you should move out."

Harry just stared open mouthed at Dudley. "NO! No, not like, I-don't-like-you-leave, move out, I mean like you and I should go and get an apartment."

Harry just stared open mouthed at Dudley. "Well?"

"Sit down for a minute, D, let me think about this." And in fact, the more Harry thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He would be able to prove his ability to protect himself, maybe even get accepted into the order if he was living elsewhere. It would certainly make Dumbledore realize that he was not a little kid any longer. "You know, I like this idea."

Dudley smiled. "Brilliant! Well, I think we should search for a place in London, they have everything we need near them and we'll be able to get jobs and stuff."

"What about your school? You're not going to live there full-time, are you?" Harry was mocking Dudley slightly.

"Well, I'm not going back to school. Not after everything that has been going on in the world these past few weeks. I figure it is safer if I hide, that's if you said was true. I mean," he looked at Harry, skeptical, "If you really are the ONLY one who can beat that guy and stop the war, I figure I am in danger too. Dad won't listen, and if he won't listen, neither will Mum."

Harry shrugged, and then smiled. "You have thought about this quite a lot, haven't you?"

"Erm, well, yeah. That's what I was going to ask you about before, and then you were all, lets go get a car, and I didn't want to ruin it in case you didn't like the idea. But you do, and now that we have a car it will be fairly easy to leave."

Harry shook his head. "No, I am almost positive that there are people surrounding the house keeping a watch on me, it is going to be extremely hard for me to leave. " He ran a hand through his hair, a new habit he had after seeing his father do it. "But I am sure that we can come up with something."

"Do you have any idea's of places where we can live? I mean, I am sure that we won't have a problem finding a hotel, but since your rich and everything, do you have anywhere we can stay?"

Harry though about it and opened his drawer in his night table, taking out the paper with all of his bank information on it. "Have you ever heard of this place?" he said pointing to Trianly's Village on the paper. "I think it's near London."

Dudley nodded, "Yeah, it's about 15 from it. You have 4 houses there?" It was Harry's turn to nod. "Wow, you really are rich," he said, looking at the paper.

"Well, I can get Dobby to possibly move everything we need into the car and we'll be able to go if I go under the invisibility cloak…" Harry looked around and called for Dobby.

"Yes sir? Harry Potter called for Dobby's help, sir?" He said, then shot a nasty look at Dudley which made Harry chuckle.

"Yes, I was wondering if you would be able to move some things into Dudley's car for us without being seen by any of the people outside."

Dobby looked proudly at Harry, "Of course, Harry Potters things will apparate straight to the car!"

"Brilliant, Dobby! Thanks lots!" Dobby bowed and moved to Harry's things. He tapped all of the things on the floor that they had taken home from Gringott's and made them smaller and put them into Harry's main trunk. He tapped them and they disappeared. He tapped Godric's trunk and it disappeared the same way. Dudley just looked, amazed at what he was seeing. "I love magic…" Harry heard him whisper in wonder.

"Okay Dudley, this is what we are going to do. You are going to your car and pretend that you see something wrong with the light. Then you are going to go to the side of the car and open the door as wide as you can. Get out the car manual and start flipping the pages? Pretend to read something and nod your head, smile or what ever, but when you get back I will be invisible and in the front seat, so when you put the book back, just do it without really going into the car. Shut the door and go to your side and leave." He looked at Dudley. "Got it?"

"Yeah, I think I can do it. Let me just say goodbye to Mum, and I'll be right out. I'll say that I'm staying with my friend for a few days."

Harry put on the cloak and went down stairs. _Shit! Hedwig!_ Harry almost forgot about Hedwig and ran up the stairs. "Dobby!" He called out.

"Yes master Harry?"

"Can you also invisibly transport Hedwig's cage to the back of the car please?" He asked taking Hedwig out of her cage.

"Certainly."

"Thanks Dobby. Thanks so much. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

Dobby looked overjoyed. "Of corses master Harry!" and with that the small elf made the owl cage disappear and did the same to himself immediately after.

"Hedwig, I need you to go out for the night. We are going to Trianly's Cove, will you be able to find me when we get there?" She hooted. Harry smiled, "Your so smart! Thanks a lot girl. Why don't you go out hunting a bit and find us?" She moved to Harry's shoulder and nipped his ear affectionately, then flew out the window. Harry ran down the stairs, whipping the cloak on as he did. Dudley was just walking out the door and Harry snuck out behind him. He crept very slowly into the driveway, being careful to get past Dudley without touching him. He maneuvered into the seat without making any of his body visible. He watched Dudley look at the car again, smile and walk around, placing the booklet back and shutting the door.

Dudley got in the car and buckled his seat belt, turning it on, and cranking the radio. He smoothly pulled out of the drive and drove away. "You here?" he said when they had gone a bit down the street, making a turn.

"Yes, that was brilliant Dud." They smiled having a small conversation. It took them a while to get to the Cove, but when they did they saw 4 completely vacant houses. "Those are mine I suppose."

"Which one do you want to stay in?" Dudley asked him.

"Well that one looks like the best." He pointed to the house that was neatly tucked away by trees. It looked very private. Dudley nodded and they pulled into the house.

"Woah." Dudley was looking at the house. Harry couldn't help but agree. The house was magnificent. It was tall, colonial looking house, but it had a very large wrap-around porch. Harry looked at Dudley with an idea. "Hey Big-D! CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!" and with that Harry sprinted to the backyard as fast as he could. He was surprised when Dudley started advancing on him, but remembered that his cousin had recently acquired health and all but slapped himself on the forehead. Harry jumped up the stairs but stopped abruptly after. A fire had sprung to life in a small fire pit built in to the porch. The porch lit up. Dudley stood next to him, admiring the wizarding world.

"Let's look inside!" Harry opened the door, anxious as to what he would find. He noticed that there was a lot of Ravenclaw colors and figured that this house must have belonged to the Smit's or the White's. They looked around and found that many of the rooms had enchantments to do something when you walked into them. All of the candles in the kitchen would light up when you walked in, and died out when you left. Dudley stayed near Harry, obviously scared at what he might find.

"Well, there's no food. Looks like we will have to wait until morning." Harry heard a tapping on the window and opened it to let Hedwig in. "You made it girl, good job!"

After Harry and Dudley finished looking around the first floor, they both agreed that they were knackered and agreed to getting Harry's things out of the car before deciding to do anything else.

With all of Harry's things in the living room, Dudley and Harry resolved that they would continue to look through the rooms tomorrow. Dudley started a fire, and Harry found some old blankets in a closet near the kitchen. When they each chose a couch to sleep on, they said goodnight and fell fast asleep.

Harry awoke early the next morning. The sun was just rising. He noticed Dudley start stirring as well. "Morning," Harry said, getting up to find the loo.

"MMhsmmallm…" Dudley grumbled, turning over. When Harry came back after cleaning himself up, Dudley was looking at the bookshelf. "Find anything interesting?"

Dudley jumped and turned to Harry. "Well, I'm not sure… I opened a book, and it yelled at me…" he said sheepishly.

Harry laughed. "Books do that sometimes. Do you want to get going? I'm starved."

Dudley nodded and they rushed out to the car. "It was weird talking to you yesterday when you were invisible." Dudley started when they left the drive.

"Just wait until I scare you…" Harry smirked at the look on Dudley's face. "_I'm kidding."_

"Oh, good… because I wouldn't have to hurt you…" they laughed and talked on their way to London.

When they finally arrived, Dudley picked a small café to eat breakfast at. "Do you want to go shopping today? Dudley asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to get some new clothes. And maybe we should order some new things for the house, it didn't look like the stuff had been upgraded for a while."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Then he started whispering, "Do you think it's a good idea though? I mean… won't someone recognize you?"

Harry smiled and whispered back to Dudley. "Well I figured I would go clothes shopping in my normal appearance, but then just sneak around next to you all day in my cloak."

They left the café and Harry put on his cloak until they were in the clothes store. "Okay Big-D, you can pick out as much as you like. I'm going to look around. Don't worry about the cost, I'll pay for everything."

Dudley smiled and started looking at some jeans. Harry found a hat and put it on. He thought that he looked rather good in it.

After an hour or two Harry and Dudley had 3 carts full of clothes and shoes. "Your right, Dudders. This did make me feel better." Dudley just grinned at his cousin and they went to pay.

Harry and Dudley walked back to the car, Dudley carrying everything and Harry popping the trunk for him. "Thanks mate, I think I'm going to like this new friendship," Dudley said when they got in the car."

Next, Harry and Dudley went to an appliance store. They picked out all of the state of the art things they thought that they would need: a fridge, oven, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer. Dudley told the man where to ship it and Harry slipped the money into Dudley's pocket. They left and went to an electronics store where they bought a new HD telly, the best DVD player around, tons and tons of DVD's that Harry thought would probably never even be seen. The telly was going to arrive at their house later that day, but they packed everything else into the car. Well, Dudley packed everything else into the car.

After they had finished buying a telly, the boys decided that they would need to have a computer in the house as well. This was mostly for Dudley, but Harry thought that if anything 'fishy' was going around, it would be talked about all over the Internet. He did, however, make Dudley promise not to break it like he remembered had happen with quite a few Christmas presents.

Dudley was also able to talk Harry into buying a magnificent, and quite pricey sound system with a radio that would connect to the telly and computer so they could listen to music form the computer and have surround sound for those actions movies and TV shows that Dudley _knew_ would need to have it.

When the boys had practically filled the small car with items, they decided that it would be good for Dudley to continue working out this year, and for Harry to join him. Harry had to admit that he was excited at the prospect at becoming a fit, brawny man, but he doubted that he would every be able to look brawny. They purchased tons of exercise equipment that was going to be delivered tomorrow.

The boys' last stop was at a grocery store. They agreed to picking out only healthy foods, but decided that chips and popcorn wouldn't be so bad to keep at the house.

Finally they left for home. It was around three when they made it back home. Dudley and Harry emptied out the car. Just as they finished, they saw a truck pull into the drive and a man step out. Dudley went over to greet him and the two men brought in the telly while Harry hid in the kitchen. After he left, Harry came back out.

"Well, I think today went rather well."

"Yeah, you could say that. Do you want to see what's upstairs now?" Dudley asked.

Harry nodded and they walked up the stairs. They looked around and found a few bedrooms, one which must have belonged to a girl, had pink walls with flower's who's colors changed when you walked out of the room. The other bedrooms were quite plain, but extravagant in the old antique style. The master bedroom was very large and included a private study, which had many books in it. Harry realized that the books were similar to the ones he saw hidden in the vaults.

When they were done looking around, Dudley decided that he liked the 2nd largest room. Harry thought that he liked the smaller, yet still extremely large for a bedroom, room because it had lush blue silk sheets and a four-post bed like the one he had at Hogwarts. It also was the only one with a balcony, which Harry liked best. He also liked the bathroom in that room best also. It was large and beautiful, but not over done like the other ones. The closet was a walk-in closet, and Harry saw something square in top corner of the room.

Harry decided that since he wasn't a cat, it wasn't too dangerous to be curious. He carefully climbed up to the square and gently pushed the square. It disappeared and widened. Harry climbed through the opening and into the space above. He looked around and found books upon books dedicated to potions. There were supplies everywhere, in jars and boxes. A large, golden potions set was near a window. Harry looked on the other side of the wall and found already made potions stored in chronological across the wall. Every potion that Harry could think of was there, even polyjuice potion. Not only was there every type of potion, but also there was an abundance of almost every one.

After a few minutes of looking around, Harry climbed back into the closet, and the square reappeared when he looked back up.

Dudley finished unpacking and went into Harry's room and looked out on the balcony while Harry finished. Harry called for Dobby and asked him if he would be able to make dinner and bring it to them since they didn't have any appliances to do so yet.

Dobby was all too happy to be able to help Harry, and Harry and Dudley went downstairs to hook up their telly. Harry was surprised to find that it worked without plugging it in, and he realized that the house must do something to all electronics.

Dobby called the boys for dinner. They all sat around the story, Harry insisting that Dobby stay for dinner as well. They were laughing as Dobby told stories of things that happened when house elves had too much butter beer, and had some cake afterward for dessert. Dobby insisted on cleaning up before he left, while Harry and Dudley continued unpacking all of their newly acquired goods. After they hooked up the telly, Harry started getting to work on removing all of the speakers and the sound system from the boxes while Dudley worked on the computer. They were able to join a wifi-network from one of their neighbors' houses.

Everything was set up by the time it was dark outside, and Dudley and Harry went over everything that they were going to do tomorrow. With their new wardrobe, Harry very highly doubted that he would be recognized. They established a list of things that they should get done within the next few days. One was Harry figuring out how secure the house. The second things that they decided they needed were cell phones. Harry wasn't sure if he liked the idea, but said okay since they could pay for a phone and just go to the store on a pay-as-you-go thing. He didn't worry too much, Dudley sounded like he knew what he was doing. They also wanted to get other small items, like a blender for protein shakes, training and conditioning videos, and they agreed that Dudley should open an account at the bank and get a debt card which harry would put half a million pounds toward. They got the money set up first since it would look funny if he just pulled it out of his pocket. It did take a while for Harry to get all of the money out of his wallet, but they accomplished the task. Both of them were tired and retired to shower and sleep.

Before Harry fell asleep, he remembered to write back to Ginny.

_Dear Ginny,_

_It's nice to have someone to talk to without the pressure of being forced to talk about things that are better left unsaid for the time being. I'm not sure if you know yet, but if you don't, please don't say anything. I'm not at the Dursley's. Dudley and I went somewhere else, but I can't say where. We are safe and no one knows where we are, but I would prefer people think I am with them as long as possible._

_I'm learning how to drive. It's really fun, and I don't doubt that it will come in handy one day. Maybe you might be able to sneak out and I can drive you to some places. I have so many things that I want to tell people, but I don't think that telling Ron and Hermione would be the best thing right now. They would just freak out and try to get more information than I want to tell, but I am going to try to figure out a way to tell you. _

_Anyway, as it turns out, Dudley has lots a tremendous amount of weight. We are even going to start working out together once we are able. When my birthday comes around, I will definitely go to see you guys. I hope I can bring Dudley; it wouldn't be fair to leave him. _

_I have been doing some studying. Not too much, but enough where Hermione would be thoroughly impressed. There wasn't much to do the first two weeks, so I read through most of the books I had for my classes. It was a good thing that Remus decided to take me to the book store before he brought me to the Dursley's. I found even more interesting books, but I will tell you about them some other time. _

_I hope you don't mind that I am writing to you. And I know that my letters are long, so I apologize. There is just so much that I want to say, and even more that I can't write to you. Maybe I can figure out a way to find an enchanted mirror… do you remember it? Sirius had one and my father had the other. Sirius gave me one before he died, but he took it with him. I haven't looked at it since, but if you got one, I don't think I would mind as much._

_I am going to figure out a way to meet with you soon, if you want. I don't think I can wait until my birthday. Dudley and Hedwig are the only people I have been talking to this entire time, and it's really starting to get to me. _

_Pretend you don't know anything is going on if people ask though, please? I just don't think it would be fun for either of us if people knew that you knew that I wasn't at the Dursley's and that you were the only one I was talking to. I am going to send a quick letter to both Ron and Hermione, but just saying that I am fine and don't want to talk about it. I'm sure they won't understand. ;)_

_Your friend,_

_Harry_

After Harry finished writing the letter, he wrote one to Hermione and another to Ron telling them he was, in fact, fine and that he did not want to talk about Sirius, especially over a letter.

Before going to bed, Harry continued reading the animigus book and finished it, then slept.


	3. Ginevra

**A/N: Thanks for the comments! Good sugestions! Just wanted to let everyone know that this fic started on a Tuesday, a half a week after being home from Hogwarts, and two weeks after Sirius died. Not sure if that matches the book, but that's what is going on. That would make this day a Thursday. I will try to update every acutally real world sunday, just so everyone knows. Thanks James for your help!**

* * *

Harry woke up and took a quick shower. He went downstairs to have some cereal and maybe watch some of the news. "Morning…" he grumbled to Dudley.

Dudley did a semi-conscious nod before going back to eating his cereal. After a few minutes, Dudley seemed to be more awake. Food usually did that to him. "So, I was thinking about it, and I don't think that we should both be gone today. Actually, I think that we should both stay home until all of the stuff comes. The people didn't actually say what time the appliances would arrive."

Harry thought about it a minute. "Yeah, but I can handle staying here if you just want to go and set up the account and buy some stuff. Might as well not waste the day."

"I don't know… what if one of the people are, like, evil or something? If you get away you should leave a sign not to go inside."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. If that happens, I'll throw one of those big rocks in the garden in the back into the driveway. That means that you should leave. I'll try to meet you at the same café we ate at yesterday. I doubt that any of them are wizards though; right now all wizards are pretty much in hiding, good and bad."

"Okay, but it's better to be safe than sorry." Dudley went upstairs after showing Harry a website with different phones that they could buy in London. Harry finally picked out the perfect phone, an iPhone. You had to pay double that of a regular phone, but it had so many benefits that Harry couldn't help wanting it. Besides, he could afford it anyway. He figured that Dudley would want a similar phone, since Dudley had always grown up with state of the art electronics. Just look at the stuff they had bought yesterday!

"Did you find a nice phone, Harry?" Dudley asked walking down the stairs and into the living room.

"Yeah, I think this one, the iPhone. It's quite amazing. Do you know which one you are getting?"

Dudley grinned. "You have good taste, little cousin. I was going to get the same one, but I have a bunch of friends who have Blackberries, so I think I'll just get the new one."

They went over the plans for the day and added a few more things to the list. They figured it would do to pay for 5 years in advance for their phones; this way they wouldn't have to be contacted by anyone and everything could stay off the record. Dudley left and Harry turned on some music with his new stereo system.

It was only a few minutes into the song when Hedwig flew through a window with a letter for Harry. Harry looked at the writing and smiled. He was really beginning to enjoy these letters from Ginny. He told Hedwig he put some water in her bowl upstairs and opened the letter as the bird flew through the house.

_Harry,_

_Although I am very worried about you, I can't say that I don't understand. I mean, if I could leave here somehow, trust me, I would. No one has realized yet, but then again they might have and just decided not to say anything to the 'children'. _

_It's great that you are learning how to drive! Dad would be so excited if you were able to take him to muggle shops and such. Not that I think you would actually be able to do that, being scouted by Voldemort and everything… but that's cool nonetheless. And, what is this you are saying about your cousin? He actually sounds like a decent bloke from your last letter. Of course, no one would mind, especially not my brothers, who would probably like to help you get back at him for years of torture by helping him to quite the selection of candy…_

_I think you should tell Hermione about your studying. Actually, maybe not. She might think that you are so depressed that your entire being has been flipped upside down or something ridiculous like that. I think it's a good idea to start studying. I have also done most of the reading for most of my classes out of Ron's old books. Did you ever realize that Ron was a good artist? He drew a few pictures of Snape that actually came out looking very realistic. Well, it could have been Snape, Umbridge, or an elephant, but Ron couldn't remember when I asked him._

_You're a prat if you think that I mind when you write to me. In fact, I prefer that your letters be very long for future references. Mum's got us cleaning like crazy over here. And Kreacher is being a complete nuisance. Hermione is going to be here later this week, so be plenty prepared to be bombarded by letters once she gets her hands on an owl._

_I haven't said anything about your situation, and you can count on me to be completely ignorant if people ask me. No one really thinks that we are friends, so it won't be hard to fake that I don't know anything. _

_Not much has gone on. There was a meeting the other day, and I don't know if you have heard, but that Diggle fellow died a few days ago, taking down six Death Eaters with him. He was amazing, that man. I only got to talk to him once, but he was very charming for an old goon. _

_As it turns out, Ron did indeed think that you were fine, once you sent your letter. He looked at it, shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about Hermione being nutters. _

_McGonagall dropped by yesterday and told Ron that he did well in Transfiguration. Imagine Mum's surprise. They didn't even realize that I had gotten an O on my exam. _

_I'm still not sure exactly how safe it is here… everyone says if a problem arises, it's Headquarters, so nothing terrible would happen. I don't know, though. If Death Eaters can get in and be sneaky about it, I'm pretty sure we are going to be in over our heads. No one is taking me seriously, though. I swear, if one more thing happens, if they so much as THINK that I am only a little girl, and I have to remind them ONE MORE TIME about how I had been in the Department of Mysteries, that's it. It is getting way too out of hand with the protectiveness. I mean, I broke up with Dean before the summer was over, and Ron won't stop talking trash about him STILL. And Mum, she won't even let me go shopping WITH PROTECTION. I had four members offer to go with me, but Mum still said no. _

_Anyway, I'm sorry that this was so long, but once I started, I just couldn't stop. If you find an interesting book, would you mind sending it to me? I have almost finished all of mine and it's going to be a few days until Hermione gets here._

_And for Merlin's sake, stay safe and out of trouble? I know there is going to be a huge blow out thing here, and I can't help but wonder what sides people will take on your absence. I know what side I'm going to take. _

_How are you feeling? I know you have been busy, but if you want to talk, well you know that I won't tell anyone anything. You can trust me._

_With Love,_

_Ginny_

Harry decided it was best if he just wrote back before it got any later, knowing that he was going to be very busy. First he thought he would go find one of the books for her.

As Harry was looking through the library of books, he couldn't help but wonder how much he could actually trust Ginny. She had always been there, but in the background. Lately, Harry's relationship with Ron and Hermione had been exhausting, while he couldn't help but feel enthusiastic with Ginny's new friendship. Harry actually felt slightly disappointed when he had finished reading the letter, wanting to read more.

Ginny had never actually done anything against Harry. In fact, she seemed to understand him better than Hermione and Ron did this past week. She said she wouldn't tell anyone if he told her things, but that wouldn't stop people from going inside her thoughts and finding out.

He looked through the library in the private study of the master bedroom. There were many books based on different studies in both the wizarding world and muggle world. His eyes fell to a section of books on Occlumency and the human mind. He remembered the book he picked up from the vault, and decided that sending Ginny one of these would be appropriate if he was going to be able to talk to her on that level.

It was a smaller book, but it was perfect in teaching what Occlumency was and how to defend your mind when under an assault. He wrapped it in paper in case anyone saw the book. After he wrote Ginny on the paper, he took out some parchment.

_Dear Ginny,_

_I enjoyed reading your letter this morning. It's good to know that people thought I was a dimwit in the past and never studied. (I'm just kidding.) Please don't be worried about me. I am very safe here and no one will be able to find me. Thanks for keeping quiet too, it means a lot._

_Unfortunately, I won't be able to tell you anything. Not because you will tell people, I trust that you wouldn't, but because people tend to take matters into their own hands by reading minds. I personally never want anyone to read my mind, and knowing you I am almost positive you feel the same way. It is because of this that I decided to give you a book about Occlumency, the art of defending your mind. It will in handy, I'm sure. Besides, I would rather be safe than sorry. :)_

_Diggle took out six Death Eaters? It's a shame he died. He must have been amazing. I wonder how they found him/he found them. _

_Anyway, I have a very busy day ahead of me. Don't let that stop you from sending a letter if you feel like it later, just know that I probably won't be able to reply right away. We are expecting visitors and Dudders is going to pick up some important objects, make some good investments. Overall, very annoying. _

_Hedwig looks ready to go for a little morning flight, so I'll end it here._

_Hoping you like your present,_

_Harry_

Harry read over the letter and quickly strapped everything onto Hedwig. She flew out the window.

Harry found his thoughts to be taking a detour to the Department of Mysteries. He choked a little, emotions surging through him. He lied down on his bed and screamed slightly into the pillows, anger and guilt seizing him. _I shouldn't have been there. I should have known that it was a trap and what was going on! I should have been informed! This is my war anyway. After all, one cannot live while the other survives… _Harry cried and yelled into his bed for a little while, then remembered what his father had told him about Sirius and pranking. When he was finally relaxed he washed his face and checked he time. He still had a good hour or two until anyone would show up.

After thinking for a minute, Harry decided to go up to the secret potions attic. The test hadn't been that bad when he reflected on it. Actually, it was quite easy for him to make his potion once Snape wasn't breathing down his back. _Might as well find some useful potions here. Lord knows Snape isn't going to want to hold a conversation on the matter and get suspicious, and Hermione would just tell me to read anyway, so why the hell not?_

Once Harry had found a potions book designed for physical fitness, he decided that it would be a good thing to have some potions around once he and Dudlikins started training. Besides, if it's there or easy to make, why not?

Harry was not disappointed in the potions he read about. There were even many side notes and short footnotes explaining other ingredients you could use, slightly altered directions which had yield better results, and shortcuts. When he looked at some of the other books he was surprised to find that every book he checked had been written in at some point with small how to's and warnings here or there.

There were two potions he found that would help heal ripped tissue from exercise which was easy to make, and a potion that would help speed up the process. He read in the footnotes that he should take the helper after the work out and the speeder before the work out. There was also an extra ingredient added: _two lemon seeds to make the foul taste go away and leave you feeling fresh like you drank a muggle lemonade. _He couldn't help but smile at that last bit.

Deciding that it would take a very short amount of time to make a large amount of the potions, Harry set about looking for all of the ingredients. He wasn't disappointed as everything was under a preservative spell, good as new. The caldron was very large, so Harry decided to make enough potions for two weeks for himself and Dudley. It would ultimately take him a little bit longer to make the potion, but it wasn't even that much longer so he didn't mind.

The equipment in the attic was very useful. There were self stirring rods that followed even the most difficult directions, and perfectly as well. The cutting equipment and measuring tools worked much in the same way, leading to Harry only really reading everything to the tolls, getting the ingredients, and doing the math for the larger amount of potion he was making. As he watched over it, started reading another, older looking copy of _Everything your potions master won't tell you_. It proved to be everything the title pronounced and more. It listed almost every ingredient and what their functions could be with other ingredients, and what not to mix them with. The side notes were even more helpful, but Harry only got through a few pages worth since it was so packed with information.

The potions were done and Harry put them all in vials. He decided to just bring them downstairs for himself and Dudley, but ended up putting them all in a box after he dropped one. Someone else must have had a similar problem because when the potion hit the floor in the closet, it just disappeared.

Harry checked the time again and noticed that people should be showing up any minute. He made his way downstairs and the bell rang. Harry grabbed his wand. "Who is it?"

"Delivery for a Dudley Dursley," said a deep voice from outside. Harry opened the door and smiled. "Are you Mr. Dursley?"

Harry laughed. "No, no I wouldn't be him. I'm Harry, Dudley's cousin," he stuck out his hand.

"John, it's nice to meet you. Please sign here," he said as Harry took the paper and signed it. "Alright, would you please help me with this, I have quite a bit of equipment to bring in."

Harry and John moved everything into the front room of the house. "It's not a problem John, Dudley will help me out with it later, don't worry. You don't need to moved all the appliances around." Harry took out a very large bill out and handed it to him.

John looked at the bill and his eyes popped out. "I can't except this Harry!" he tried to give it back to him.

"Listen, if you don't take I'll burn it right now." He smirked as John's face changed.

"No, that won't be necessary." He put the money in his pocket and stuck out his hand. "It was a pleasure, Harry." They shook and he drove away. Harry looked at everything they bought and realized that there was another truck coming with stuff for exercise.

It was a similar process with the next delivery person, except there were two and they helped Harry set up the gym in the work room near the living room. He also gave them a large tip. Everything went smoothly all in all.

Dudley was still gone, so Harry decided to do what he had been meaning to do for a while. "Dobby?"

With a sharp POP! Dobby appeared. "Harry Potter sir! You needs Dobby's helps?"

"Well, I have been thinking Dobby, and I wanted to know if it were possible for you to become my house elf?"

Dobby wobbled on his feet. "Woah, steady there Dobby." Harry held the little elf up.

"Harry… Potter… Harry Potter's… house elf?" Dobby started wobbling again.

"Dobby, are you alright, would you like anything?" that seemed to do the trick. Dobby hopped back into his normal self and jumped up to hug Harry.

"Dobby would bes delighted! Harry Potter as my Master!" Dobby snapped his fingers and some papers appeared. "Alls we haves to do is signs some papers, Harry Potters!"

Harry looked at the papers and signed appropriately. Dobby had to sign at the very end and it disappeared. "Well Dobby, your a Potter now!" Dobby squealed in excitement. Then he stopped and turned to Harry. "I am very happys, Master, Dobbys thinks Winky would make another wonderful House Elfs sir? Winky is nots happy at Hogwarts, sir, and Winkys is an excellent cook!"

"Do you want her to come here Dobby?" Dobby nodded. "Then certainly!"

Winky popped in front of Harry. "Harry Potters, sir! You wants for me to bes your house elfs please sir!"

Harry chuckled. "Yes, I would love to have you as my other house elf Winky. I heard you were an excellent cook."

Winky squealed and snapped her fingers. Harry went through the same process as he did with Dobby. "Well, I think this calls for a celebration!" he looked at Winky and Dobby. "Welcome! It's going to be great having you guys in the family. Just, remember that Dudley lives here and he is part of the family. Try to give him a little room at first please? He is still getting used to the magical world."

"Of course, Master. Anything you want." Winky bowed but Harry stopped her.

"Winky, please just call me Harry. You guys are part of the family, no bowing." He looked over at Dobby. "The same goes for you Dobby."

"Yous makes us very happy Harry Potter sir. Nows, whats are you doings with alls of these boxes?" Winky looked around the room.

"I was hoping you two would help me unpack and set these up. They are all of the newest appliances and everything. But if you want to get aquatinted with the house and grounds first, you are more than welcome."

"Harry Potters, once you signed us we learns the layouts of all of your houses sir. All yous has to do is take us there and we will know of everythings unlesses the magic makes us not, but no ones really cares abouts us house elves sir, so usually everythings is learned."

"I care about house elves, so if I learn anything, I'll tell you. Now, you two probably know more about this property than me, so if you just want to tell me where I should put everything-"

"No, no, no. Winkys is nots going to lets her Harry Potters picks anything ups, sir. Dobby and Winky wills unpack and put everything away. Harry Potters will does as he's pleases."

Harry laughed. "Alright Winky. Just make sure to remember to go easy on Dudley, he doesn't know too much about house elves."

They nodded and Harry took the opportunity to go explore his back yard. He walked out of into the garden and noticed how warm it was. It was an amazing garden. There were the most magnificent flowers and he thought that he noticed some lilies scattered about. Harry smiled a small smile and continued walking. Past the garden was a beautiful pond with a dock not too far out. Harry looked around and decided he couldn't help himself. He stripped down to his boxers and jumped in, swimming out. The water was fresh and clean. He opened his eyes and saw plenty of fish swimming around him. He reached the dock and laid down.

After a few minutes he looked around again. There was a patch of seaweed or one of it's look alikes at the other side. There was a side on not to far off from where he came from that was a clear field. The grass was tall and swayed with the wind. On the opposite side there were huge trees reminding Harry of the Forbidden Forest. He could feel his skin cooking and figured he should get back.

Swimming back Harry felt something near him. He looked next to him and saw a snake slithering on the water.

"_Why are you here?" _said the snake.

"_I live here now. I'm Harry Potter. Do you have a name?"_

"_Yessss. I'm Sssslyt. It's becausssse I'm jussst asss fassst in the winter. I'm a sssnow sssnake. There hasssn't been anyone here for a while. A human ssstepped on me and I bit him, no one hasss come sssince then."_

"_Iss that a good thing, Sslyt?"_

"_Yesss. No ressspect thessse daysss. They usssed to buy me frogsss, supplying the pond all timesss of the year. The ressst of my friendsss had to leave. I'm the lassst."_

"_Would you like me to get you ssomething for the pond?"_

"_Yesss. Thanksss. I can give you sssome venom in return."_ With that the snake slithered away.

Harry put on his shorts and carried the rest of his clothes back to the house. He noticed an eagle with gold hair on its body and white feathers on the wings fly across his property. Dudley was just pulling in when Harry was walking through the garden. "D," he called out.

"Ay, Harry. We have a pool?"

Harry walked over to the car to help with the packages. "Nahh, but there's a pond with a dock in the middle. Wouldn't go in alone though, there's some snakes."

"Then why would it matter if I were alone?" Harry opened the back door for him.

"Because I can talk to snakes." Harry played it off like it was normal

Dudley's eyes bulged. "Can all of you do that?"

"No, actually I am the only one I know besides Voldemort who can speak Parsletongue."

"Ah!" Dobby and Winky were moving the furniture around the kitchen.

"Oh, Dudley, you remember Dobby?" he nodded. "And that there is Winky. They are our house elves now. They're part of the family."

"Master Dudley, pleasures to meets you!" squeaked Winky, bowing.

"Er, master?" he asked Harry.

"Please don't call anyone Master." He told Winky and Dobby. They both nodded.

"Do you needs any helps, Harry Potter sir?" Asked Dobby.

"No, I think we can handle all of this. Do you need any help?"

"We's is doings fine, sir. No helps needed."

Harry and Dudley walked into the living room and set down all of the bags. "I hope the phones work…" said Harry.

"You mean they might not even work because of all of this magic?"

"Yeah, but all of the other stuff works, I just don't know about things with batteries."

"My watch has batteries and it's been working fine." They smiled tearing into the boxes.

"This is so sick!" Dudley yelped turning on his blackberry.

Harry just stared in amazement as his phone turned on. "Were you able to get the debit cards, D?"

"Yup, everything was smooth sailing." Then he got a look on his face.

"What is it?"

"Well, I think I should give Mum and Dad a call is all." He dialed their phone number.

"Don't tell them I'm here, just tell them that you will tell me to give them a call after you are done… you have my cell phone number or something." Dudley nodded.

"Mum? -- Yes Mum, I'm fine. I'm actually having a great time. This is my new telly. -- No, my-" Harry raised his eyebrows and mouthed NO "… friend is paying for it.-- Yeah, they owe me is all.-- No Mum, we are just going to stay here at the beach house.-- Yeah we're actually in Italy.-- I just thought that it would be a good idea, you know, become a man and what not.-- Okay, I love you too.-- Dad!-- No, I'm just trying to have a good summer.-- Yeah, my friends are all going to pay for everything since I drove.-- Yeah, they even bought me this new telly.-- No, one of them has a beach house here in Italy, so we're going to stay here until the end of the summer.-- Yeah, I thought it was a good idea too.-- Okay.-- No, I don't know where he is, but I will tell him to give you a call later.-- Yeah, I have his phone number.-- No, his parents had money, remember?-- Yeah, apparently they can talk on the phone.-- No, I don't know, Dad.-- Okay.-- Yes sir.-- Alright, you too Dad, bye."

He looked over at Harry. "You should give them a call later."

Harry nodded. "Alright, but I would like to get all of the electronics working first. Maybe set up some accounts on that iTunes so we can buy some more music."

Dudley smiled big and wide. "I met a girl today. She was smokin' Harry."

"Whoop! Big-D's in LOVE!" Dudley grimaced. "Well, are you going to tell me about her?"

Dudley mumbled something Harry could have sworn was along the lines of _bloody magic_, "Yeah alright. She's really cute, from Australia. She dropped out of school back there and came here and is a waitress. None of her family is here, and she hasn't really met anyone to hang out with yet, so I invited her out for an evening of fun this weekend." He smiled. "I got her phone number and everything." Then he looked at his hand and programmed her in.

"Alright, just don't take her here, I have to figure out some ways to better secure this place." He went over to the computer. "Want to listen to some music? I think you should do all of the account stuff anyway, I'm not as good with the technology."

After a half an hour of bantering about Dudley's new _friend_, Winky came in with some sandwiches.

"Thanks Winky," said Harry.

"Yeah, thanks. These are great!" said Dudders.

"I ams happy that Harry Potters and Dudleys boths enjoy Winky's sandwiches!"

Dudikins and Harry both chuckled. "Are you two finished unpacking everything?"

"Yes, Harry Potter sir, we have finished with everythings. There is an exercise rooms next tos this ones sir, and a washrooms next to the kitchens."

Harry smiled. "Thank you very much Winky."

Harry and Dudley were on the computer buying all of their favorite songs and listening to them with the surround sound. They had actually been enjoying themselves when Dudley finished doing everything and set up Harry's phone so that he could download music strait to it.

"I guess I should give your parents a call now." To say Harry was unhappy was an understatement.

He dialed the phone number and waited. "Hello, Aunt Petunia.-- I am at one of my houses.-- Yes from a relative who died.-- Alright, can you do me a favor then?-- No, if you do it then I won't have to go back to your home.-- Yes, I promise.-- Can you tell any one who asks if I am home that I am out and left a while ago?-- No, just anyone who asks for me.-- Thank you. Have a nice day."

"At least I didn't get your father." Dudley sniggered. "I honestly don't know why you guys don't like me so much."

"It's not that I don't like you, it's that Mum and Dad never liked you. I just thought that I was entitled to hit you and stuff. Never thought that it was bad or anything, Dad told me it was fine. And my friends all liked it, so why not?" He looked at Harry. "I am sorry though. I never did thank you about last year. I never really took you seriously, and with my friends disappearing and being attacked last summer, I just started to think that, wow, maybe I can help Harry since he obviously wasn't lying about all of that war crap."

Harry nodded. "Alright, I accept you apology. Do you want to go check out the exercise stuff? I made us some potions for afterwards so our muscles don't hurt as much."

"You mean like magic potions?" Harry nodded. "As long as it doesn't kill me, I don't see why not."

They changed and worked out for a few hours before it got dark out and Winky called them in for dinner. They decided to each take quick showers before they ate. When they went back down for dinner, the table was set very nicely and Harry and Dudley were both impressed by the house elves.

"Would Harry Potter sir like anythings froms the wine cellar?" asked Dobby.

"Wine cellar?" he looked over at Dudley. "I doubt that there is any normal alcohol in there…"

"Dobby looked ats all the wine himself, Harry Potter sir, and theres was muggle scotches down there as wells."

"Scotch!" said Dudley. "I think I could use a bit!" He was very excited.

Harry laughed. "Alright then Dobby, why not bring us up some scotch?"

Dinner was very eventful. After both Dudley and Harry finished their plates, they decided to keep the scotch with them as they went back to the living room. They continued drinking, laughing it up as Harry told Dudley about all of the magical creatures and weird things that he had seen. Dudley was very interested in hearing about the twins and their tricks, having remembered the candy he ate when they were at his house. When they finally decided to call it a night, they both staggered up stairs to their rooms.

Hedwig was waiting on the balcony with a letter tied to her leg. Harry took the letter and smiled seeing Ginny's handwriting.

_Harry,_

_People are starting to ask questions about if you are home or not. They said that you weren't going outside, that they could tell anyway, and that there was no light in your room. I just told them that your light had blown out and the Dursley's weren't getting you a new one any time soon. That earned me an argument from Ron about why I was talking to you. I figured it sounded like something that would happen._

_I started reading about Occlumency. It is very interesting and I took a lot of it to heart. Even started organizing my mind if you can believe that. Thanks for the book, I plan to get very good, so it won't go to waste. _

_You said that you were safe, but I have an idea about how to be even safer. Don't tell anyone though, I like being underminded, it get me out of trouble. ;) Knowing you, you are probably friends with some of the goblins? Bill said something about you impressing many of them, but they wouldn't say when you went, just that you were very kind and that they even _liked _you? Never knew goblins could like people, but if they were going to pick one person to like, I'm not surprised that it's you. Anyway, they are amazing with wards. Bill isn't even half as good and he is the best in the country! I think you should ask them about helping you stay safe and secure. Just a thought though._

_Everything has been quiet. A little too quiet if you ask me. I think HE is hiding out. I wonder why…? I learned that Diggle was the one who found a death eater hot spot and went there. He argued with Dumbledore about it apparently, and Dumbledore didn't think that it was right to kill any of them. I say screw it. Why the hell not? Those bloody bastards went around last time just murdering people, why shouldn't we kill them before they can start again?_

_Anyway, just think about what I said about the goblins? I promise not to tell anyone anything if you do or don't, I just thought since I can't physically help out, that was the next best thing._

_With love,_

_Ginny_

'Ginny. Ginn' Harry thought. 'I never realized what a pretty name that was.' He staggered over to the desk. 'And that is a very smart idea, why didn't I ever realize she was so smart?' He pulled out some parchment. 'And she's really great at quiditch too.' He thought about watching her play a little bit. 'She always molded right to the broom.' He remembered the one time at the beginning when they had tryouts for the team and no one was wearing any cloaks. She was wearing a tight fitting shirt and pants. 'She was really sexy in that. And she has only grown more since then…' He started thinking about her flying on a broom wearing that outfit now and found himself getting turned on. 'Better write this letter before it gets too late…'

_Dear Ginny,_

_Great ideas for the security stuff, I'll go tomorrow and set something up. _

_Sorry about you and Ron fighting, thanks for covering up for me though, it bought me probably just enough time._

_Today I got a cell phone! Its so cool. I'll have to get you one, just don't show Ron, I'm sure he would freak out. _

_Remember when tryouts for quiditch last year? That was a lot of fun, we should go riding together soon. I'll come pick you up one day._

_Did you ever realize how pretty your name is? I mean, Ginny is pretty, but Ginevra is quite sexy. I wish I could have a better name than Harry._

_Keep up with your Occlumency,_

_Harry_

The handwriting was sloppy and almost illiterate. He couldn't help thinking when he wrote down "thanks for covering up for me" that he would never really want Ginny to cover up for him any day. He stumbled over to Hedwig and tied the letter slightly too tight, earning a sharp nip on the finger.

Harry dragged himself over to his bed and fell asleep.

* * *


	4. Ruffy

Harry woke up the next day with a very bad headache. He remembered dreaming of Ginny for some reason, and was slightly embarrassed by what he could remember. The sun hitting his face maybe his headache worse. "Dobby?" Dobby came bouncing into Harry's room.

"Is Harry Potters not feeling well, sir?"

Harry nodded. "Would you know about anything that would lessen my hangover?"

Dobby jumped up and down. "Yes, Harry Potter sir, Dobby even has some in case Winky was doings a bad job and drinkings again. But Winkys is happy, so you can haves it, sir!"

Harry thanked him and asked if he could give some to Dudley as well. A few seconds after Harry had downed the vile tasting vial of pink potion, he immediately felt better. He noticed a letter next to him and scanned it quickly. _Shit_ he thought, _I fucking called Ginny's name sexy last night! It Ron finds out he'll kill me! What was with that anyway…_

Hedwig flew over to Harry and landed on his head. "Are you mad at me girl?" He tried to get her down. "I'll give you something nice this morning, don't worry…" Hedwig stuck out her foot. Harry moaned seeing it was from Ginny.

_Harry,_

_Well, I'll admit that no one has ever called my first name sexy before, but I'm happy you think so. Personally, I hate the damn name. Mum's a git for naming me so badly. But don't worry, I think your name is quite sexy, so I guess we feel the same way about each other's names in that sense. _

_I would really love to go flying with you. As I say in every letter, I am very bored. How are you feeling? I suppose you have been busy. I'll work more on the book tomorrow, but I think I can finish sorting my mind or what not by the time I finish. I had always done something like that, just because I found it easier to study that way. _

_Ron's not talking to me and Mum is preparing for a large meeting this weekend as well. She has been in and out buying more and more food. I swear, it's like she is cooking for the ministry or something._

_Anyway, I am going to sleep now. I never realized that you stayed up so late. Well, I guess I did since you were always the last one left in the common rooms at school, but I never thought that you were the same way over the summer. Tell me how it goes with the goblins._

_With love,_

_Ginevra_

Harry felt a weird sensation when she mentioned going flying with him, but thought nothing of it. He went downstairs for breakfast figuring he would write back later that evening. His body was a little sore still from the work out, but he imagined that it would be much worse than if he hadn't taken any potion afterward.

Dudley was sitting at the table watching the elves clean up the kitchen. "Yo D, did you have some of Dobby's potion?"

Dudley smiled and looked up. "That stuff was bloody amazing! If only I had known about that before you left last summer…" they laughed. "Anyway, what is going to happen today?"

"Well, I was thinking about going to the wizarding world and getting some goblins to set up some security. A friend of mine thought that it would be a good idea, and I agree. Although I will have to see if they would be able to change it so that muggles can get in or something… I imagine you might want to bring some friends? Like Lisa for example?" he sniggered.

"Shut up. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. But, how are you going to get there?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Well, I guess I will drive over to London and go through the pub in my invisibility cloak. I really don't like apparating. It hurts quite a bit…"

"I thought you were like a big celeb or somethin'?" he asked finishing his eggs.

"Yeah, but I have a trunk that I can change my appearance a bit in. I figured that if I just changed my hair color and put some make up over my scar, there would be no worries. Plus, I have all new clothes anyway."

After breakfast, Harry did just that and went up to his room. After he was in the trunk he did as the parchment said and asked for a room that would aid him in changing his appearance. It was a very bright room, one that reminded him of the ones in muggle movies. There was a book next to a mirror that reminded him of the one he brought from his vault. _A magical difference: easy ways to alter an appearance_. Harry flipped through it and decided that it would do him well to do as the directions said and cut his hair. He read a spell that would change his hair blond for 5 hours. He gave himself short spiky blonde hair. He put some lotion on his eyebrows so that they didn't look completely different from the rest of the hair on his head, and watched their color change to match. He noticed that he was tanner than he remembered being and realized that it was from being outside yesterday. The glasses gave him away though. He looked around and found a delicate pair of glasses that were very modern and fit him perfectly. Underneath he read that they were 24 hour prescriptions and that they would work for a day outside of the trunk. He looked in the mirror again and didn't recognize himself.

After changing into some muggle clothes that wouldn't attract the eye in Diagon Alley, he decided that it was time to go before it got busy. It was only eight o'clock, and the wizarding world was known for being quite lazy, but he didn't want to take any chances. He took the keys and Dudley reminded him to take his phone. He hopped in the car and put down the top. He looked around for a moment and realized that he could hook up his phone to the car speakers, and did so eagerly. After he was out of his neighborhood he figured that it would be alright to blast his music.

He pulled up to a stop light next to a car with girls dressed in beach clothes. They all giggled and waved at Harry. He blushed and smiled at them, wondering what that was all about. He parked his car near the pub and walked through to the bricks in the back. Remembering the pattern that Hagrid had used, Harry tapped the bricks and let himself into Diagon Alley.

When he was outside on the streets he felt his phone vibrate. He looked down and saw that Dudley had texted him. _You get there okay?_

Harry texted back. It was slightly awkward because he still wasn't used to the phone, but did it relatively okay. _Yeah, I'm good. Do you need anything while I'm out?_

Noticing that there was no one on the streets, he plugged in his headphones and started playing music again. It wasn't long until there was a beep and vibration that Dudley had texted back. _Nahh, I'm good. You said last night that you wanted to get another phone though, so just reminding you._

Harry smiled, thinking on his growing relationship with Dudley. If there was one thing that he would have never bet on, it was Dudley and him being civil towards each other.

He made it to Gringott's no problem. Upon walking in he spotted Griphook. "Griphook," he said extending his hand to the goblin, "it's a pleasure seeing you again."

After a moment of confusion, a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "Harry," he said shaking his hand and smiling his scary toothy grin, "the pleasure is mine. What can I do for you today?"

"Well I was wondering if Bognok was around? It's something private and I was wondering if the two of you might be able to help me out?" Griphook eyed him carefully.

"Follow me. You didn't schedule an appointment, did you?" Harry shook his head following the goblin down the hallway. "No matter. Wizards usually wake up later in the evening." They chuckled and entered Bognok's office.

"Griphook, what may I do for you?" said Bognok walking over to them.

Harry extended his hand, "Bognok, it's good to see you again." Bognok was unable to hide his shock but shook Harry's hand.

"I am sure you remember Mr. Potter?" Griphook snickered.

"Oh, Harry, it is good to see you as well." He smiled sending chills up Harry's spine. "What can I do for you?"

They made to sit down in the comfy chairs among the room. "I was wondering if you would be able to secure my properties. I have realized that goblins must have a hell of a lot of wards here, hence being very thorough with them?" Bognok nodded. "Well I need my house warded. I will give you all the money you need."

Bognok thought it over. "That seems reasonable. We have never been asked to ward a house before, but I understand where you are coming from. We take great pride in the security here, as well as our own homes. We learned a great deal about wards after we were forced into hiding. Which properties were you thinking of warding?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Well, I would like to ward my current home in Trianly's Village first and foremost."

"That can be easily arranged. Would you like all of the wards we are able to put on the house?" Bognok asked.

Harry thought about all of the wards he knew. "Well, I want all wards for wizards. No wizard can come in or out, unless it is me or I say they are okay, something like that. I think muggles should be able to come as long as Dudley Dursley, my cousin, or I say their name upon arriving on our street." Griphook started writing the specifics down. "I don't really know what wards you offer though."

Bognok waved his hand over a parchment and writing appeared. "Well Harry, we will make your home unnoticeable to everyone who has not previously heard about it. We can put an anti-apparation and portkey ward as well as floo since it is monitored by the government, it can be changed there, but we have a ward to protect you from that. We can make a repel ward for all wizards. There is a charm that goblins do that is exactly like the fidelus charm in the wizard world, except we can arrange that it be ineffective toward muggles. You said something about your cousin, so we will make only blood relatives able to enter the home unless their name is mentioned by that blood relative while on your street. May I ask that we change that to mentioning the name at the gates of your home?" he asked.

"Well, we don't have gates."

"We can make you gates Harry, that will not be a problem. Does that satisfy you?"

Harry nodded. "We also usually have animals secretly guarding most of the bigger vaults here. I believe there was a griffin guarding the Potter vault until three years ago when he passed. Would you like us to get a tame griffin for you? He will only listen to you and your blood relative. I know that griffins are one of the best animals to have on your property. They will protect you better than almost any other creature."

"That sounds like a great idea! Will I be able to make the griffin not eat anyone who has been allowed through the wards myself or by Dudley?" he asked.

"Yes, griffins are very intelligent creatures. They are extremely comprehensive and have many other attributes. I think you will be more than satisfied. I know that your mother, Lily Potter had loved the griffin previously guarding the Potter vault. Though I only went with them twice, the griffin was also very found of her. I am sure you will be much the same way when it comes to liking pets." Harry drank in every word about his mother. He had never really heard anyone speak of her, and the fact that a goblin told him more about his family than most of his teachers made him want to ask questions about it. But now wasn't the time or place to do so. "All in all I think that twenty-five thousand galleons will pay for everything. And that is only about a fifth of what is in your tuition money, so it isn't even that bad."

Harry thought for a minute before smiling at the goblin. "I think I have a better offer. Because you are doing all of this for me, and you told me something about my mother, I really am grateful. I know that you goblins are going out of your way, doing this, so what if I gave you something that is worth more than that amount, only not in galleons?" he smirked as the goblins thought about what he might be able to give him. "If you wouldn't mind moving the portrait of my mother and father into my new home, and also making my undetectable by magic when you are at my home, I am willing to give you that large black diamond you found in my vault." The two goblins jaws dropped and Harry laughed, never having seen a goblin wearing such an expression of shock before. "You accepting would be considered a sign of friendship on my part, and I think that you deserve it anyway. I know that many wizards are cruel, and though this does not make up for it, I hope it says that not all wizards are like that."

"I- You- What?" asked Bognok.

Harry laughed again. "I think you should have that black diamond in my vault. I am not going to do anything with it, and I think you would appreciate it more anyway. Besides, I don't want anyone to know where I have been this summer…"

"Thank you!" said Griphook, unable to contain himself. "From what I have heard, some of the biggest diamonds are in your vaults, Harry! You do not understand what such gems are considered in value to the goblins!"

Bognok was in similar tone. "Accepted Harry! Forever we will protect all of your homes! Of course we will accept your friendship. I have no doubt that our goblins will do their best magic for you Harry. Oh, this is so exciting. Griphook, would you please arrange the transfer team to get the portrait of Harry's Parents out of the Potter vault? Then I will go with you later and collect the diamond." He stood and hopped over to Harry, extending his hand. Harry took it and Bognok shook it excitedly. "This is extremely wonderful, Harry! We will have your house finished by the end of the day! I think I am getting a raise for this one…" he started muttering to himself.

"Oh, would you be able to get some books for me from the vaults? I was wondering about some animagus facts and couldn't find them in my previous book." Bognok gave him a questioning look. "You know… wizards becoming an animal form…?"

"I know what you mean Harry, but I don't understand why you would want that book. Just get the Library book from each of your vaults. It is a book that has the title of every book in your library in it. You tap it and it becomes that book, and you tap the last page and it goes back to the library book. And why do you need more information on becoming an animagus? I can just change you here."

Harry gaped at the goblin. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you close your eyes and I will do some magic so you can feel what your creature is. Then when you know what your creature feels like, I do another spell and you transform. From then on you can do it by thinking of the feeling of your animal. At least, that is what your godfather Mr. Black paid us to do, and that worked fine. Your father, on the other hand, figured it all out on his own. It bothered Mr. Black to no end until he finally asked me personally about any books that we would know of. The fact that you asked me a similar question was just brining back memories."

Harry reeled in the new information. Sirius would definitely do something along those lines. "I would be most appreciative if you could show me how to become my animal!"

"Alright. Griphook, while we are doing this, would you mind going to Harry's vaults and getting the library books as well? We should drop them off with the portrait."

Griphook nodded and turned to Harry. "Are those plans good, Harry?" Harry nodded and turned to Griphook extending a had and grinning from ear to ear. "Excellent doing business with you, Griphook. Thank you so so much!" They shook hands eagerly and Griphook left, closing the doors behind him.

"Alright Harry. Relax and close your eyes. I am going to do a spell and you see your animal form. Concentrate on what your animal form feels like, and tell me when you are done." Harry closed his eyes. A moment later, he saw a bird, much like the eagle from the day before, except it was black instead of white. It's middle had hair, like the other one, but that too was black with the exception of a lightning bolt in shiny gold that stood out prominently on the chest of the eagle. It's beak was hard and jet black as well. He looked down at his talons to see they were also jet black. The eyes of the eagle were the most prominent feature though, being the same color as his eyes, magnificently green. He felt all of the feathers and concentrated on every aspect of his bird form. He nodded to Bognok. Suddenly he felt all of his body configure into the bird. He opened his eyes when he felt no more changing and saw everything perfectly.

Bognok looked on at Harry as he spread his large, black wings. Harry pumped them twice, lifting his body off the chair. It was a magnificent feeling as he flew through the air or the room. He turned and landed back on the chair, looking at Bognok. "You can change back now." said the goblin. Harry concentrated on being him again. He opened his eyes and looked at his body. "THAT WAS BLOODY AMAZING!" he exclaimed. Bognok chuckled. "Yes, your god father had a similar expression when he changed."

"How do I go back?" he asked.

"How did you go back to your wizard form?"

Harry concentrated on his bird form again and changed slowly. He flapped his wings and went around once before changing back. "This is really amazing. Thank you so much Bognok!"

Bognok waved the wizard off. "That is nothing compared to what giving us that black diamond means." He extended his hand toward Harry. "A pleasure, as always Harry."

Harry shook the goblin's hand. He took a piece of parchment that said his name and Dudley's on it. "That is for the wards. Remember that you have to tell your griffin who is a friend, writing them down will do nothing." Harry nodded. "Have a nice day, Harry."

"You too, Bognok." Harry was so giddy that he practically skipped out of the bank. Upon walking to the pub he saw some interesting stores. He stopped first to get his Hogwarts robes for next year. He also picked out some interesting dress robes. He left them a little big since he and Dudley were going to be working out all summer. Next he went to a store that sold eye glasses. He figured he might as well just buy a new pair.

"Good morning." He said to the witch being the counter. She glanced up from her magazine then looked again, staring at Harry.

"Now it is," she winked at him. Harry felt the flirtatiousness and heat tingled his cheeks. "Can I get you _anything_?" Looking her over he decided that she most certainly could, but then yelled at his body and his hormones for getting all worked up.

"I am looking for some new eye glasses, would you be able to help me?"

"Of course." She stood up and Harry followed her over to a chair. "Please, sit." Harry sat down on the comfy chair. "Do you want any special glasses?" she asked.

"Well, I want ones that will help my sight." The witch giggled. "What's your name by the way?"

"Oh, I'm Glindy." She extended her hand.

"I'm H-" he caught himself and pretended to clear his throat. "Sorry, I'm James."

They shook hands and Harry noticed that she held his for a few seconds longer. "Well now James, point to a pair of glasses you like."

He pointed to a thin black rimmed pair of square glasses. "I think I like those." The witch swished her wand and the glasses floated over to them.

"Would you like them semi-permanent?" She asked taking off his glasses slowly and putting his new ones on. "No one will be able to move them unless they touch them with their hands…" she said gazing into his eyes.

Harry felt the intensity of her gaze. "I would love for them to be semi-permanent…" his voice was huskier than usual. What was going on with him today? First Ginny, now this Glidy?

Glindy leaned forward so Harry got an excellent view of something he had indeed dreamt about that previous night. "There you go, James." she whispered, leaning in closer. "You have such sexy eyes. Why don't you get some contacts as well?" She swished her hand again and a small box appeared. "These are auto prescription. Put them in the included solution every night." She leaned in closer to Harry, placing the box in his hand, never leaving his eyes.

Harry realized just how close they were and only wanted for her to get closer. When he felt her hand placing the contacts in his he gently caressed it. His face moved slowly closer to Glindy's until they were just millimeters apart. "Thank you, Glindy." His lips slowly touched against hers. This kiss was so much better than the one with Cho. Slowly Glindy's arms wrapped around Harry's neck and she sat on his lap. It was a very nice feeling, her soft lips against his. He found his hands wrapping around her. Their lips moved together for a few minutes before he pulled away and looked at her. "I am terribly sorry, Glindy, but I have to be going." She nodded, dazed and got off of him, walking to the counter. "How much will that be?"

She smiled up at him. "On the house, James." Harry smiled and put the contacts in his bag of robes.

"Have a great morning," he said walking out. He walked a little bit before he stopped completely. _What the hell? Did that just happen? When the hell did girls want to kiss me? It was nice though… Not wet and uncomfortable like Cho's… _He thought about it for a few more minutes until he was next to a pet store. He looked in and saw a cute dog in the window. Acting on an impulse that had been driving him all morning, he went into the store. "That's a cute dog," he said to the woman behind the counter. He saw her giving him a similar look to the one Glindy had. _She is too old to have that look… besides, I have to get going._

"It's not the only cute thing in here…" Harry blushed faintly. "It's called a Prymal. They are like muggle pugs and boxers except live as long as the owner and are much more energetic. They usually are guard dogs. We only have one left."

Harry walked with the lady over to the prymal. "Sounds good, I'll take him." She smiled up at him. "Do they need to eat anything special?"

"Yes and no. They eat dog food like the one we have here, but they have no problems with other normal food. If you want him to eat what you eat for dinner, that is fine too. I have to let you know that they are quite expensive…"

"Money's no problem," he waved off the witch's concerns. "Do you have a leash?"

After Harry left the store with his cute new prymal, he decided to make one last stop. There was a store across the way that caught his eye and he walked in. All over there were things for the 'Adventurous Wizard'. There wasn't anything worth buying really in the store. As he was walking out he spotted a kit with suck on candies in them. He went over and picked up the box.

_The Linguist Lozenge_

_The Linguist Lozenge is a candy with a complete vocabulary. All you do is suck on the tasty treat and like magic you suddenly know the language of the flavor. This full kit is complete with every dead and still used language with the exception for many different Indian and Chinese languages, having only the main language from each country. If more than one lozenge is bought (1,234 to each Linguist Lozenge Kit) it is suggested that only one new one be sucked on every 4 days. Not only will the wizard sucking the candy be able to speak the language, they will be able to understand the written language as well. Enjoy!_

Harry thought that it was an amazing idea. He went over to the counter and requested six kits of the Linguist Lozenge. The man eyed him and told him that it was a very expensive treat. Harry asked him how much it would be and the man was surprised when he pulled out the total form his wallet. Deciding that he should get going, Harry left the Alley after putting the kits in the bag while carrying his prymal.

The prymal was very happy to be held by Harry. Once he put everything in his trunk he set his prymal on the ground and bent down to pet him. "Your a good boy," he praised. "What's your name anyway, boy?" The prymal gave a little ruff of excitement. "Ruffy?" he ran in a small circle and jumped up and down. Harry laughed. "Good Ruffy, good boy! Okay, Ruffy, one more stop and then we can go home. Does that sound good, boy?" Ruffy ruffed and wagged his tail. Harry laughed again and walked him over to the Sprint store at the end of the street.

He picked up Ruffy and quickly bought another iPhone with all of the same settings installed as his. The lady behind the counter thought that Harry's _dog_ was very cute and let him pay everything in cash for a five year unlimited everything plan. It cost quite a bit of buck, but Harry of course had no problems with that. "Do you have a manual of how to use this? My friend is horrible with technology and won't be able to figure it out. She barely even knows what a cell phone is." The girl quickly got a few manuals specially made for the iPhone and Harry left on his way.

He set Ruffy in the passenger seat. "Now Ruffy, I know that you like to be hyper and such, but it is important that you do not jump out of the car and stay seated." He watched as Ruffy sat on the seat wagging his tail. "Your a smart bugger, aren't you?" Ruffy ruffed again and Harry jumped into his seat. He quickly texted Dudley that everything went well and that he had a surprise he would show him when he got home. Plugging in his iPhone to his stereo system, he couldn't help blasting the music when Ruffy started howling to the beat.

It was an over all very enjoyable ride which made Harry's day even better. Ruffy was very talented musically, and was able to howl to everything perfectly on tune. He remembered something about Dudley not liking dogs, but then again, Ruffy wasn't even a dog. They got home and the new gates opened for Harry. They were large and black with the Gryffindor lion in the center. He pulled in the drive, popped the trunk and put the top back up. Once the engine was off he put his iPhone in his pocket and took Ruffy out. "Very good boy, Ruffy, very good!" Ruffy jumped up and down and licked Harry as he praised him.

"Harry," said Griphook walking up to the him, "would this be the car you mentioned?"

"Yes, Griphook. I love the gates too, very nice. Did you run into any problems?" He asked taking the bags out of the car.

"Only a small one, but once your cousin realized that we were the goblins you were talking about earlier, your house elves stopped attacking." He smiled.

Harry laughed. "Sorry, should have mentioned that. Anyway, you brought the books and portrait?" the goblin nodded. "Is the griffin here yet…?"

"Oh, no, we had to wait until you were here to bring in the griffin. Actually, he should be landing any second now…" after Griphook said that a huge griffin landed in front of them. He stared into Harry's eyes for a second, lowering his head. Harry went still but would not let himself show fear. He bought this animal, it was his. It wasn't going to eat him.

"Hello," Harry said when the griffin took a deep breath. "Are you the new Potter griffin?" It nodded slowly. Harry smiled and extended his hand to the creature. It slowly smelled the hand then leaned into it. Harry pet him softly, remembering his first encounter with Buckbeak. "What's your name…?" It looked at Harry again. Harry turned to Griphook who was standing a few feet away watching the encounter. "Is he fully grown?"

The goblin chuckled. "Oh, no. Griffins get much bigger than that, this is just two years old. Since they are so rare to come by there weren't any younger than him, but he will more than double in size."

Harry looked back at the griffin and smiled. Thinking about how big he was going to get, Harry couldn't help feeling slightly intimidated. "How about Pugnar? You seem like the type of fellow not afraid to fight." Harry watched as the griffin raised his head and puffed out his chest slightly. Harry laughed. "Pugnar it is. Pugnar, meet your new brother, Ruffy. Ruffy, Pugnar. Now, you two are to treat each other with respect, that means no hurting one another." He watched as the two animals seemed to agree with him. "Wonderful." He turned back to Pugnar. "Please do not eat any of the goblins today, they are here under my wishes. Also, we live with two house elves, and a muggle. He is going to be very scared of you, let him. Just, don't hurt him. I don't mind if you intimidate him," he smiled when he could have sworn the griffin was smirking, "just no hurting him."

"Well, Harry, we are finishing the final touches on the wards. I will have to leave so the others and I can put the last in place." He put out his hand. "I really do enjoy shaking your hand. I have come quite accustomed to it."

Harry laughed and shook the goblins hand. He watched as the goblin walked down the drive, then out the gates. Harry turned back to his two new pets. "Well, I have discovered a very nice pond down the back. You two are welcome to go exploring," he took off Ruffy's leash, "just be back before dinner time." The griffin took off in the air, exploring the land that was now his. Harry had an urge to go with him in his own feathered form, but held off. Ruffy just ran in circles in the front yard. Harry laughed and went inside.

"There you are, finally." Dudley looked like he had just been to breakfast with a lion. "Are they gone?"

Harry smirked at his cousin. "Yes, all of the goblins left. Thanks for taking care of that." Dudley's eyes wandered to Ruffy. "This is our new pet, Ruffy. He is a prymal. They are like dogs, except magical. Not too much is known about them, but they are very good watch dogs." He laughed again. "And they are very good at singing." Ruffy howled a tune that was playing in the car. "Good Ruffy, who's a good boy?" Harry pet him on the head. "Anyway, I'm starved, is there anything for lunch?"

Dudley snapped out of his little trance of staring at the amazing singing dog. "Yeah, Winks and Dobs were making some sandwiches when you arrived."

Harry stopped and turned to look at his older cousin. "'Winks and Dobs'?"

Dudley blushed slightly. "_Well_, you were gone all day, so I was talking to them about house elf stuff. I was bored. Sue me."

Harry put his hands up in mock surrender and walked into the kitchen. "Harry Potter have a nice outings, sir?" Dobby asked.

"Yes Dobby, it was wonderful. I bought a prymal and a griffin today."

"Harry Potters boughts pets?" Dobby jumped up and down. "Dobby's loves pets sir!"

Ruffy ran over and Dobby pet him. "That's Ruffy. Ruffy, that's Dobby. Winky," he said as the other house elf walked over, "this is Ruffy. Ruffy, Winky. The griffin outside is named Pugnar." He took a sandwich and bit into it. "This is delicious by the way."

Winky bowed and pet Ruffy gently on the head. "Does Harry Potters needs anything elses sir?" Harry shook his head. She turned to Dudley. "Does Dudleys needes anything elses sir?" Dudley shook his head also.

"So everything went well then?" Dudley asked Harry as they finished their sandwiches.

Harry smirked and raised his eyebrows as if to say mockingly, _did everything go well. Psh. _He concentrated on his new animagus form and received a very welcomed yelp from his big cousin. He changed back, laughing. "You could say that."


	5. Goodnight

Harry and Dudley thought that it would be a good idea for them to work out hard today and make tomorrow, and all Fridays for that matter, fun days. Dudley had warmed up nicely to Ruffy when he started howling to Dudley's favorite music when they were working out. After Harry and Dudley had both ran on their treadmills, Ruffy had jumped on Harry's and started wagging his tail. "What is it boy, want to go for a jog do ya?" Harry asked him out of breath. Ruffy ruffed and jumped up and down, excited. Dudley laughed and Harry sheepishly turned the treadmill on. It was on a slow walk. Ruffy ruffed and Harry made it quicker. This process continued until Ruffy was going at a nice run of fifteen kilos per hour.

Harry and Dudley sat back waiting for Ruffy to show signs of slowing. After a half an hour of the boys laughing and taking pictures and videos on their phones, Ruffy briskly jumped off the treadmill. Harry walked over and shut it off. Dudley was praising Ruffy for a very entertaining performance. "Never seen a dog do that, Ruffy. Who's a good boy. Yeah, at a boy." Harry chuckled at the complete turn around of Dudley's attitude toward the animal.

Dobby set aside some water with ice-cubes for Ruffy, which he drank right away. Harry and Dudley continued working out, doing as many crunches and push ups as they could, continuing by working their back and pecks using the machines. After a few hours, the boys were very tired. They decided after they took their potions that showers would do wonders for their muscles. Ruffy went outside to check out the yards and do his thing.

Harry's body was still terribly sore after taking his potion and the shower. He did feel a little bit better though. Once he was finished, Winky told him that dinner would be ready shortly. Harry went out back and called for Pugnar and Ruffy. Within a few minutes both showed up. Harry praised both of them extensively, loving being able to show his admiration openly to his pets and have it shown right back to him. Dobby came outside to get Harry for dinner and Harry introduced the house elf to the griffin. Being the very happy, excited elf he is, Dobby prepared a large steak for the griffin and put it on a large rock in the garden.

"What do you want to drink with dinner tonight, Harry?" Harry looked over at his cousin.

"Well, I know what you are going to want," Dudley chuckled, "but I am going to have some tea, if that's okay Winky? I need to do an errand afterwards."

"Certainlys, Harry Potters sir." She turned to Dudley. "Cans Winkys gets something for Dudleys, sir?"

"I think I'll have some night tea if that's good with you, Wink?" he asked politely.

"It mosts certainlys is good withs Winks," she said going back to the kitchen.

"They are such good cooks!" Dudley told Harry when they had begun eating.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, and amazing good help around the house as well. Dobby is even good at making potions which is a big relief considering your favorite drink at night is not tea, is it Big-D?"

Dudley laughed. "Right you are, _Harry Potter_." Harry gaped at him. He sounded just like someone who had seen him in the wizarding world. "What? Mum saw one of her favorite actors once when I was with her and that's what it sounded like." He was still snickering.

After dinner Harry went upstairs again. He found his new wizarding robes had already been organized in his closet, and contacts were put in his bathroom. When he went in there he looked in the mirror and saw that all of his hair had gone back to black and his scar was clearly visible now. He looked at his hair. It was short and spiky, not his normal hair. He closed his eyes and wished he could just get it back to the way it was before he cut it. When he opened his eyes he had to rub them. His hair was back to normal! _What the hell?_ It was at his normal length, the back sticking at all angles and what not. Harry looked at the mirror and thought about how he wanted his hair to look more 'wind-swept', like he just got off a broom. He knew that it would never be tame, so why not go for the all out un-tame hair he saw his father had? He closed his eyes and pictured the perfect length, seeing his father's hair and wishing for that. When he opened his eyes again he was not disappointed. He smiled at himself and opened the contacts.

When he was finished in the bathroom, Harry wrote a quick note to Ginny.

_Dear Ginny,_

_Please do not be disappointed when you see the length of this letter, it's the contents that count. The handsome eagle that came with Hedwig is a good friend of ours. Unwrap the present it has. I paid for it, but your going to have to read up on it to figure out how to use it. Dudley is still teaching me. _

_When you finish toying around with your new gift, please shut your door and stare at the bird. Make sure you are totally alone. When you do both of those things, wink at the bird, and DO NOT make a sound. Don't worry about anything else. _

_Enjoy,_

_Harry_

Harry was excited about his new present for Ginny. He hoped that she would like it. "Hedwig?" he called. Hedwig flew in from the balcony and landed on the desk. Harry wrapped up the present and tied it on her foot. She bobbed her head. "I know it's heavy, don't worry. I am going to drive us to a block away from the house. Watch for a moment." Harry concentrated and turned into his animagus. Hedwig hooted and flapped her wings. Harry changed back. "Yeah girl, I can fly! But I think I am too tired to help you carry it so far, so lets just drive until we are only a little ways away from Headquarters." Harry held out his hand and Hedwig hopped onto his hand.

"Yo, D?"

"Yeah HP?" he called from the living room. Harry walked in to find him watching some action movie with a lot of shooting.

"I'm guna' take that car, is that okay?" Dudley nodded, too engrossed in the movie to care. Harry smiled and got the keys from the small table near the front door. "Call if you need anything," he shouted before closing the door.

He opened the car and Hedwig settled in the back. Harry went to get in the drivers seat when he was met by Pugnar. "It's alright, Pugnar. I just have to run an errand." Pugnar glared at him like a concerned parent _Don't get hurt. Be Careful. _Harry could almost hear the words in his head. He smiled at the griffin. "I'll be fine. You just get settled, I don't mind if you stay on the deck. We'll figure something out this weekend." The griffin nodded reluctantly and moved out of the way. Harry decided to play the radio and listen out for anything he might enjoy. Hedwig didn't seem to like it when the music was too loud, so he kept it at a lower level.

When they arrived near Headquarters, Harry looked around and took Hedwig into the alley after locking the car. He quickly changed and followed Hedwig up to the secret house. Hedwig flew cautiously threw a window. Ginny was alone in the room. She saw Hedwig and smiled at her, saying, "Thank merlin…" She walked over to the door and shut it. Harry noticed that eyed him with a questioning glance, then smiled at the letter. She moved to her bed, but not before taking off her cloak she had been wearing, relieving a very tight fitting t-shirt and very form fitting shorts. Harry couldn't take his eyes off of her, even if Voldemort himself walked into the room. Well, maybe he would then, but only because he wouldn't want Voldemort to be anywhere near Ginny. _Anywhere near Ginny? No, anywhere near anyone. What's getting into you Potter?_ Harry quieted his brain when Ginny got up and locked her door. She then went back to her bed and opened the present. When she did her face got all messed up in a look of confusion. If birds could laugh, Harry would be rolling on the floor. He flew down to her bed and looked up at her.

"Yes, I see you," she whispered to him. "And I have absolutely no idea what Harry is playing at…" then she stared at him and winked. Slowly Harry closed his eyes and transformed back into himself. He heard Ginny's sharp intake of breath. He opened his eyes. "Surprise…?" he whispered seeing the awe in her face. "Shhhh." He interrupted before she started screaming.

"Why was your first kiss so wretched?" she asked.

Harry was flabbergasted. "Wha-"

"I have to make sure your you!" she whispered. She smiled when Harry gave the answer.

"Because it was with Cho, and she was crying." When he finished Harry was toppled over by her in a big hug.

"I was worried…" she whispered to him. She squeezed him tight and Harry realized the answer to his dreams questions from the night before. _Yes, she HAS grown…_

"I told you not to worry," he whispered back to her, slowly returning the hug. Ginny realized the position they were in and quickly moved to get up, blushing furiously. Yes, she had just been completely on top of Harry with most of their bodies touching, alone in her room, on her bed. Analyzing this wasn't helping her blush go away.

Harry did all he could to not groan from the loss of contact. _Why did that feel so good? Your not supposed to want Ginny to be completely on top of you, alone in her room, on her bed. It is not supposed to feel good! What if Ron walked in?_ Harry slowly sat back up and shook away the thoughts in his head, smiling at Ginny's read face. "Great advise by the way. Goblins are extremely helpful when they like you."

Ginny smiled at him. It was good to see him, so good. Then her looked changed to concern. "How have you been?" she asked seriously, staring into his eyes. They usually told anyone anything they wanted to know.

Harry sighed. "I have been alright. The beginning of the summer was really rough, but it is getting much better." His eyes welled slightly as he thought of Sirius. When he looked away he felt Ginny's hands timidly take both of his in her own. He looked back at her.

"I'm not an expert on death, but I think your going about it the right way." She smiled lightly, her own tears coming up. She didn't break down though, only let them cloud her vision. She took a deep breath before continuing. "It seems like you are working hard and learning because of it, and I think that that is the best way to go about this."

Harry nodded and let a tear fall down his face, not afraid that Ginny had seen it. He slowly leaned forward, craving the contact from before. Ginny hugged him tight as she felt him cry silently on her shoulder. She rubbed his back and ran her hands through his hair, not even realizing she was doing so. Harry quieted and stopped crying, giving her a small squeeze before pulling apart. "Thanks, Gin." He smiled at her.

She smiled back and decided to make him feel better. "I thought you liked _Ginevra_, Harry?" She lightly batted her eyes and rested her finger on his chest. Harry's face was priceless. It wasn't long before she started silently laughing until she was rolling on the bed. Harry realized that he had just been played and started silently laughing as well. Soon he too was rolling on the bed. They quieted and Harry whispered back to her, "Thanks again, _Ginevra_."

When Harry said her name like that, Ginny got the chills all over her body. She smiled at him though, and replied quietly, "Every time, Harry."

They slowly moved back into the sitting position for the third time now and Harry took up her present. "It's an iPhone. Top of the notch technology in the Muggle world. You play music, surf the internet and call people on it. I already downloaded all of the music Dudley and I have gotten over the past few days. Your phone is logged in to our account on iTunes so, if you want music, it's already paid for." She looked completely lost. Harry laughed and started to show her everything he knew that her phone could do. Two hours later they heard Ginny's door unlock. She quickly threw her robes over her iPhone and letter while Harry changed back into bird form.

"Ginny, are you still awake?" Her mother whispered into the room.

"Yes, Mum." She was slowly moving everything off of her bed and onto the floor next to her. Her mother didn't see anything out of the ordinary as she walked over and gave Ginny a hug. "Goodnight dear, it is getting late, you should get some rest."

Ginny kissed Mrs. Weasley on the cheek and made to get into her bed. Once she was under the covers and closing her eyes her mom flicked her wand and the lights went out. Harry noticed his vision was still perfect, even though the lights were out. He gently flew down to Ginny's bed and watched her watch him. He became human again, then leaned in to whisper in her ear.

Ginny's heart was pounding as Harry leaned closer and closer to her. He looked in her eyes then said so soft she thought she had imagined it, "_Goodnight, Ginevra."_

With that, Harry did something neither of them could get out of their minds for the rest of the night. He moved his face ever so slightly and kissed her temple. Ginny sighed and Harry turned back into his hawk self, flying out the window following Hedwig.


	6. Cards

A/N: From this point on, all text messages will be as followed so as not become confused. Harry text Ginny: _You complete me._ Notice the (:)? That means text message. Just thought I would clear that up. Italics will continue to be Harry's thoughts. Thanks for all of the reviews too! Enjoy!

* * *

Harry woke the next day early in the morning to the quiet beep of his phone. There was a new text from Ginny. Harry smiled wiping the crap out of his eyes and putting on his glasses: _This is really cool, I read the manual and my text to you is the first one ever!_

Harry chuckled and wrote back to her: _Oh, you only like it b/c it's sneaky._ He got out of bed and took a shower. It was around eight when he went down for breakfast and found Dudley watching the news. "Hey Harry," he said looking up. "Nothing new that looks suspicious."

"Yeah, I think he's laying low and just getting some support. He's sneaky like that, mate." He went into the kitchen to be met by Winky.

"Sir, would you like bacon withs your pancakes sir?"

Harry smiled. "That would be lovely, Winky. Thanks." The elf went to make his breakfast. Harry's phone vibrated and he read the latest text from Ginny: _Oh how right you are, Mr. Potter. Anyway, I finished the book yesterday and forgot to tell you. We have to talk soon about Feathers, mister._ Harry smiled. _Feathers? Yeah, I think I like that. Feathers. Better than Puffball or something the twins would come up with._ Harry wrote back to Ginny: _Well when you can sneak away give me a call._

After he finished breakfast he decided to check up on Pugnar and Ruffy. "Guys?" he called out when he walked onto the deck. Ruffy ruffed a hello and sprinted very quickly up to Harry. Harry opened his arms and stumbled back as Ruffy pounced on him.

"Good boy! I woke up and you were gone. Where'd you go?" Ruffy ruffed in response and licked Harry's cheek. He laughed. "Good boy, Ruffy. Who's a good guard dog? You're a good boy!" Ruffy yelped and jumped out of Harry's arms.

Pugnar landed on the path in the garden and trotted up to Harry. "Hey Pugnar, how was your night?" Harry pet Pugnar for a few minutes. It was a beautiful day.

"Harry Potters is enjoyings the sun, sir?" Dobby said walking from the side of the house looking quite dirty.

"Dobby, good morning. Yes, it is very nice out today. Why are you so dirty?"

Dobby wiped off his body thoroughly. "Dobby was doing somes gardenings, sir. Theres is tons of magical plants heres, sir!" Dobby jmped up and down, excited.

"Glad to hear it, Dobb-"

"WAARHAGGGHAAAAAAH- UUF!" Harry turned quickly with his wand out to see Dudley fallin on his arse, Pugnar leaning dominantly over him. Harry started howling with laughter, even more when Ruffy joined him laughing. After a good minute of Harry and Ruffy screaming their lungs out in laughter, Harry tried to get a grip on himself. "Pugnar, don't eat him, that's Dudlikins." Pugnar didn't free his gaze as he walked slowly back over to Harry, who pet him graciously.

Dudley scrambled quickly to his feet. "It was going to kill me…" he mumbled. He pet Ruffy when the cute ball of soft fluffy energy ran over to him to say good morning. After a few moments he seemed to have realized why he had come out back in the first place. "Do you want anything from the store? I was going to get something for tomorrow…"

Harry thought for a minute. "Yeah, get as many frogs as you can?" Duly gave him a _WTF?_ look. "I need them to fee the snow snake in the pond." The look grew. "So he won't be hungry for bloody human flesh," he said, exasperated.

"Oh, that's what you were getting at." Harry walked over and took a few hundred pounds from his wallet. "In case you don't want to use that card of yours."

Dudley left not long after. Harry decided to take the time to go inside and talk to his parents.

The portrait was hanging in the study. He looked over at it and waited for his parents to notice. "Harry!" his mother called. Harry grinned and walked over.

"Hey Mum, Dad." They smiled at each other for a few moments.

"Harry, how is school?" his father began.

Harry pulled up a chair and went into all of his best and greatest school stories. His parents cried and told him their own best few stories. Around one Harry's mum told him he should go eat and that they would have plenty of time to talk during the summer. Harry agreed but thought about a story his mum had told him.

Apparently, James had known that Lily was the woman of his dreams ever since he looked into her eyes that first time he ran into her on the train first year. Lily had disagreed, completely, for the next six years of their schooling. James had tried to do everything he could think of to get Lily to go on a date with him. In his third year he had even begun trying to prank her into going on a date with him. Not one to be duped, Lily countered the prank by one of her own.

Lily's skills in school were known as being the best at Charms and Potions, unlike James who was amazing at Transfiguration and Ancient Runes (thanks to _his_ father James started learning Ancient Runes before he even began attending Hogwarts). Late that night, Lily had a pack of muggle cards that she had brought from home. She charmed all of the cards to move around like in the movie, _Alice in Wonderland_. When she finished, the plan was to get all of James' robes into the common room. Once that step was finished, Lily poured a few drops of the most wretched smelling potion, that served no other reason for existing than that of having a vile smell, on everything. Then the cards put everything back in the room. All in all, the prank was a huge success.

Harry thought about the cards for a while. He decided to give Dudley a ring, telling him to go to a toy store and buy a couple packs of cards, a bunch of boxes of the tiny plastic army men, and some sets of the air force planes. Dudley had no idea why Harry would want any of those little kid toys, but agreed on buying them.

Harry wasted no time. He ran back in the study and found all of the books on charms he good, then went to the kitchen to eat.

Winky made up sandwiches and muggle lemonade. This surprised Harry, but then again, almost everything about the house elves surprised him. He went outside upon finishing lunch. It was one of the hottest days of the year, and he found that after only a few minutes of laying in the grass he had to take off his dark t-shirt. Pugnar ended up laying down and Harry found him to be very comfortable to lay against.

Reading for a while, Harry found a bunch of spells that would be amazing to use. "Dobby?" he called out. Dobby was in front of him a few seconds after. "Do you know if there are any clean journals lying about?"

"Yes, Harry Potters sir, Dobby founds a small stock of black note books wivs nothings written ons them. Would yous likes for Dobby to gets ones?"

Harry smiled at the small elf. "If you don't mind. And, can you bring the auto-filled quill?" The little elf hurried away. In no time at all his was in front of Harry with the book and quill. "Thank you a lot Dobby, your too good to me."

Dobby did what Harry thought looked like a blush, bowed, and then left. Harry looked around and saw Ruffy pouncing on something in the distance, then chasing it. He couldn't see what it was but it looked very amusing from where he was laying with Pugnar.

Harry wrote down all of the charms that would help him. There was a charm to have nut-crackers and similar toys walk around. Another charm had the toys doing as you pleased. The next charm Harry wrote down was a spell gave the toy the ability to talk to the caster in whichever language the caster had been thinking of while doing the spell. Harry also wrote down a spell that was a combination of the levitation charm, order following charm, and the language charm. He doubted that it would work, but from what his mother said, she had been able to create spells by being inventive and combining the wand movements and words so they all flowed nicely.

Shortly after, Pugnar got up and shot into the air. Next, Dudley's car drove into the drive. Once he opened the door and got out, Pugnar landed right in front of him, scaring Dudley quite well in the process. Harry laughed and walked over. "Pugnar, don't you remember Dudley?" The griffin squinted his eyes and took off into the air again.

"Can't you do anything about that…?" Dudley asked him, blood finally going back into his face.

Harry snickered, "Griffins are usually very stubborn, sorry." Harry and Dudley took all of the bags into the house.

"So, why did you want me to buy toys?" he asked.

"Oh, you'll see later. Anyway, are you ready for the fun-friday-workout?" Dudley perked up. "We are going to go into a trunk in my room. You are going to cast spells… but not with a wand…"

They continued and went in the room. After Harry did as he was supposed to, Dudley standing next to him, a new room appeared. It seemed like they were in a very old work house. Harry pointed to a door with a bulls eye on it. "That, my dearest cousin, is all of your ammo. Behind that door you will find the best guns, pistols, grenades and bombs that you could think of. The movie you were watching gave me the idea. You are going to try to shoot me down and be able to pin me for ten seconds there after to win the game. This is simply a defense game for me.

"All of the guns and such are loaded with spells, jinxes, and anything that I have learned that isn't harmful that could possibly be used in a duel. Each gun is like a normal gun in that the more powerful ones have longer lasting effects, and more effective spells. The pistols mostly contain stinging spells and very ineffective stunning spells that will only be able to do as much damage as a dead leg, while the snipers and hard core guns will have very effective stunners that will keep me down for a few seconds to a minute depending on if it would be a fatal hit on a muggle or not. All of the semi-auto's in there are the ones with the main jinxes. They vary on the position of the hit as well.

"The bombs and grenades are made to temporarily confuse and distort everything in that area." He looked at Dudley. "Do you think you can shoot?"

Dudley grinned wide. "You know, magic is awesome." With that he took off to the room. Quickly Harry ran away and hid in the corner, putting a disillusionment charm on himself. Dudley ran out of the room, loaded down with everything he could possibly hold on his body, chucking bombs every which way.

Finally, after an hour of Harry jumping to lower levels and climbing across tight wires, even climbing a wall at one point, Dudley sniped him with a hardcore stunner and pinned him.

The room transformed back into the comfortable sitting room and the two boys were laughing like they had been friends forever. "I have to admit, Harry," Dudley said when they were calmed down, relaxing on the sofa, "that was fucking amazing."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, and all this time you thought I was a freak." They laughed again. "So did you enjoy it then?"

"Yeah, that was a great idea." He turned and looked at Harry. "Why was it that you wanted me to buy you toys?"

"Well, you see when my mum, your Aunt Lily, was attending Hogwarts, she found that she had a gift with Charms. She did this thing where she made some cards come to life sort of, like the way they did in that movie _Alice in Wonderland_?" Dudley nodded. "Well I figured if she could make cards do that, then I would be able to. And then, if you could make cards to what you want, why not just make an entire army be able to do what you want?"

"Oh, that's a great idea…" He stood up. "Let's see what we can do!" Harry helped Dudley out of the trunk and the two got the toys and the book and got to work.

It took a long time for Harry to get all of the spells working right, but once he got them down he was able to do it to the entire sections or army men at the same time. Next he moved on to the Airplanes and Air force toys. Those took much longer because every single one had to be done individually, along with Harry figuring out how to use his new invented charm on the toys. Dudley had also bought similar models from star wars and super hero movies that he noticed. Harry finished with all of them in about three hours.

Dudley was having a great time commanding all of the troops and giving them different assignments to complete within the room. They had troops wrestling each other and running laps so they were all up to tip top shape. Considering they were made that way, it didn't take them too long.

Harry saved all of the cards for last. There were ten decks in total. Harry used ever spell he could on them, including anti-detection spells, waterproof spells, indestructible spells, everything that wasn't too hard that he had previously tried in the past. He noticed that the jokers worked as watchmen and foresaw everything else that was going on in the room. Harry told the cards that he wanted to see an elaborate fortress built, and they did just that. It was amazing, really. Then he did the finally charm, one his father he told him how to do. It was similar to the charm on the map. The cards would just be regular, normal cards unless you said "Animagus Flush". Then they would become the new magical cards. To make them normal muggle cards you had to say "Sirius Jack". He had no doubt that his mum, dad, and Sirius would be proud of these. Especially of the related names.

Dudley decided that he was getting hungry and Harry agreed. All of the cards went back into their boxes, all in order to Harry's surprise, and Harry conjured a box to place all of the toys in so they could take them easily in the house and store them if need be. Harry gave Dudley a box of charmed cards and decided that he would give a pack to Ginny as well. She would be able to do some great pranks on the twins with these ones! He chuckled thinking about it.

In stead of having dinner at the house, Dudley and Harry thought that pizza would be perfect and that a man's night out was in order. Instead of having dinner, they decided to shower. Harry put in his contacts and gave himself short, spiky hair again. This time he left it alone figuring that he didn't recognize himself if it weren't for the wretched scar. He looked in the mirror again. He wasn't wearing any clothes and noticed that he really didn't have hair anywhere else on his body, except for the minimal amount on his arms and legs. He thought it would look nice if he had slight stubble on his face, not enough to be considered a beard by anyone's means, but just enough to look like the guys on the telly. He concentrated really hard and opened his eyes. He was again not disappointed. He applied some lotion from yesterday on his scar and it disappeared. He put on some tan kaki shorts and a collared polo t-shirt. He looked in his dresser and thought that it would be a good idea to wear the black under armor baseball cap he had bought with Dudley.

Harry and Dudley left the house shortly after six. Harry had his cloak, wallet, wand and iPhone with him. He figured he would stop by headquarters and give Ginny her cards later. The two took the top down, Harry told Pugnar they would be back later, and the two took off, blasting music as they went.

After pizza, Dudley drove to the game store and picked up the newest games that Dudley had been told about, and a whole bunch of extras as well. Harry had to admit that he was getting excited after buying all of the latest stuff. Running through the sidewalks, Dudley and Harry were having a mock chase where Harry would attempt to jump from wall to wall and get away from him. Some kids noticed and stopped them.

"Hey, yo!" A thin boy around Dudley and Harry's age shouted. He walked over to them when they turned. "I saw what your two were doing, that was pretty sweet."

Harry waved him off. "It's just for fun."

The kid looked at Dudley and Harry for a moment then turned and waved his friends over. He extended his hand to Harry. "Names Prince. This here is Jack,"he said nodding to the kid next to him of similar build with bright blue eyes, "and that there is Joker," he finished talking about the kid standing on his other side who was shorter than the others by a little more than two inches. Each of the boys had a similar look, t-shirt and jeans. Prince had highlighted hair that stuck up in all directions, Jack's brown hair was in a fo-hawk, Joker had his ear pierced and longer, blond, straight hair. Harry shook there hands. "I'm Feathers," Dudley snorted slightly, "and this is my cousin, Aced." They all shook hands.

"You from around here?" Jack asked them.

"Yeah, we live a bit away, you from around here?" Dudley asked them. The boys nodded their heads.

"Just moved from the states," said Joker, "we're brothers."

"Interesting, I was going to ask where you accents were from," Harry said.

"Yeah, well at least we speak better than you, Feathers." Everyone laughed. "Ever hear of a thing called Street Running?"

Harry looked at Dudley. He shook his head. "No, what is it?"

Jack chuckled. "It's what you were just doing, Feathers. Jumping from wall to wall, trickin' in your shoes. No board or wheels needed."

"It isn't really popular, but there are a few groups of big street runners where we came from. We practice jumping from roof to roof, diving into flips, those sort of things," Joker explained to them.

"That's interesting. Do you do it often?" Harry asked them.

"Yeah, we used to do it every day, but we had to stop this week because of the move. Anyway, we were wondering if you would want to go street running with us tomorrow or something. You're really good at it already, and we'll show you all our moves." Prince was taking out his phone.

Harry looked at Dudley. "Your call, Aced."

"Yeah, I think it's a good idea. I can't do all the stuff Ha- Feathers can, but I'll give it a go." He took Prince's phone and handed him his blackberry. Everyone started trading information.

"You guys doing anything tomorrow besides that?" Joker asked them.

"Aced here's got a date," Harry was elbowing him. Dudley punched him lightly. "But, otherwise, no. Want to hangout after the run?"

The boys looked at each other. They all nodded. Prince spoke up. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We can't really do anything at our house though, so should we go to your house?"

Dudley got a nervous look, Harry just laughed. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll have Aced drop me off and you guys can follow us to our place afterward."

The boys agreed and set up a meeting point for tomorrow. Harry and Dudley left to continue on their way to the car. "Reckon that was a good idea?" he asked.

"Yeah, we can just ask Dobby to keep Pugnar busy and Winky will love making food, I'll just ask her to help out Dobby before they go inside." They got to the car and Harry turned to Dudley again. "I have to go take care of something quickly, it shouldn't be more than ten minutes, but can you drive me over a few streets? I have to go to Grimmauld Place, but it would be better if I'm not seen."

Dudley nodded. "Alright, I'll just make a call to Mum to tell her I'm fine. That should give you plenty of time." With that, Dudley started up the car and Harry took out a pack of cards. He put them on the floor as he transformed. Once he was Feathers again he became completely visible. Dudley parked in an open spot on the corner after passing the sign for Grimmauld Place. Harry picked up the cards and Dudley started his call.

Harry quickly soared through the sky, loving the feeling of being so free. He reached the house and soared through the same window as last time. Ginny was in the room, playing with her new iPhone. She jumped slightly when Harry landed on her legs. "Oh, Feathers, you scared me," she said petting him. He nibbled on her finger playfully and moved off her legs. She went and shut the door. Once it was closed Harry changed back and removed the cloak. He smiled at Ginny and she went over and hugged him.

_She just molds to my body…_ Harry thought. _And, wow this is nice. Wait, what are you talking about? _Ginny moved back. "What did you bring for me today?" she asked him, snickering.

Harry chuckled. "Well, I figured you could use a bit of help pranking the twins. These muggle cards will do the _trick_." He tossed her the pack. "Open them up."

She opened them up. "Wow, Harry, you REALLY went out of your way this time."

He laughed. "Now, they _look_ like just plain, muggle playing cards, right?" she nodded, her eyes narrowing. "Well, once you say 'Animagus Flush'-"

Ginny gasped. "They come to life!" she finished.

"Not only do they come to life, but they do what ever you want. Watch." He turned to the cards. "Alright, I need you to get all of the ink bottles in the room and stock them on the table. Sound good?"

The ace of spades answered. "Sir, yes, Sir!" He turned to the other cards. "Evens are the stairs, odds are the carriers. Move OUT." The cards started a march to clear the room.

Ginny turned back to Harry, laughing. "This is really amazing, Harry." She looked at him. "I like the look by the way," she leaned in causing his heart to race as her lips touched his ear softly, whispering, "Makes you look rouge, _Harry._"

Harry had no idea what to say. That probably had something to do with the fact that there was no blood going to his head. His hand found Ginny's back without his knowledge, gently pressing them closer together. "Why thank you, _Ginevra." _They were staring at each other for a few seconds. Then Harry's phone vibrated. Ginny chuckled, hiding her disappointment when Harry coughed and moved back a few steps. "I have to get going," he told her, "but when you want them to go back into the box, just tell them." He turned around, then snapped back. "Oh, to make them muggle cards again, just say 'Sirius Jack'." He didn't realize that he had stepped closer to Ginny, and he didn't realize how close they were until he gently kissed her on the cheek. "Enjoy."

Harry whipped on his cloak, transformed, and flew out the window leaving a very confused and very red Ginny behind.

Harry flew back into the car and Dudley started it up, not looking at him until after he was completely changed back. "How did it go?" he asked when Harry pulled off the cloak.

Harry sighed. "I think it went well. I don't know, Ginny is Ron's little sister, but she is just so much better to talk to, and, my body keeps wanting for her to do those little touches and stuff." He turned to his cousin. "It's so frustrating."

Dudley nodded. "Yeah, I know. It was horrible for me to get a girl until I thinned out and started working out. Now I'm starting to get a little bit bigger, but that's all muscle, no fat. You're growing too, so it must be something in Mum's genes."

Harry thought for a few minutes, then decided he was going no where with his thoughts and changed the subject. "Hey, _Aced_," he said laughing.

"Oh yeah, thanks for THAT one, _FEATHERS!_" he started laughing. "At least you gave me a name that fit, but I get why you would rather be called Feathers than King."

"I have to say, I am excited as to what they want to do. But for now, I'm just excited that I will be WHOOPING your ARSE all night, Aced. No way you are going to beat me in these games."

The bantering continued until they were driving through the gates. "Do we have to add those kids to the list?" he asked Harry.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, but we don't even know their full names. Reckon it'll work still?"

Dudley shrugged. "I have _no_ idea." He yelped getting out of the car.

Harry laughed. "Oh, that never gets old," he said wiping a fake tear away. "Pugnar, everything good?" Pugnar looked smug and trotted over to Harry who scratched him behind his ears.

They brought the stuff inside and Dudley said he would take care of it. Dobby brought them some butterbeers form the cellar. Harry signed the paper for the S.R.'s who would be stopping by tomorrow. He put the paper on a shelf in the study and turned to his parents before he left. "Tomorrow we will be having some muggle guests, is there any way you two could stay still tomorrow?"

"Sure, honey. That's easy. We won't move an eye." Harry waited for his dad. "Oh all right, I'll be good also." They laughed and Harry went back out to Dudley.

Harry and Dudley played for a while, but Dudley asked Dobby to bring up some of the liquor from downstairs which led to them deciding to stop playing video games and watch one of the movies after a while. It was late when they each staggered up to bed, laughing about how Dudley had better aim than Batman.

He checked his phone before laying down. He had a picture message from Ginny. He opened it and almost died in laughed. Ruffy had climbed into bed with Harry and he too started bark-laughing. Fred and Gorges' underwear was covering the portrait of Mrs. Black in an interesting design, while the rest of the clothes were intricately hidden throughout the house.

Harry text Ginny back: _You're so funny, Ginevra. Always so smart with the best ideas. _Harry went to the bathroom and took care of nightly hygiene. He walked back into the room in his boxers and picked up his phone. There was another text from Ginny: _Yeah, but smarts don't count for everything… guys usually don't notice when your smart. _

Harry text her back quickly: _Yeah, which is why your lucky since your so hot. I can't imagine a guy not noticing you. Especially when your on a broom. _

After that he fell asleep quickly.

Harry woke up with Dobby and Ruffy jumping on his bed. Harry groaned when his pounding headache hit him full blast. "Dobbys made Harry Potters some medicine, sir!" said the elf, placing the bottle in Harry's hand and bouncing out the room. Ruffy ruffed and licked Harry good morning.

"Hey boy," Harry said after downing the potion. Ruffy jumped off his bed and ran out the room. Harry got out of his bed and brushed his teeth examining his new, short hair in the mirror. It wasn't his normal hair do, but he thought he liked the way it looked wet or gelled. His hand ran through the new short length. He looked at his scar. It had been tingling him since the Department of Mysteries and last night had brought on a strength that he hadn't felt since before then. Nothing had happened, but it had still hurt enough for him to notice that it was hurting more than normal. He put in his contacts and played with his new scruff on his face before walking out.

He grabbed his iPhone off of the night table and groaned. _Oh Merlin, that happened last night didn't it. What has been wrong with me? I never told Cho she was hot or any of those things…_

He checked his messages and noticed a new one that had been sent last night from Ginny: _You're not so bad yourself._ He thought about what that could mean before shaking his head and walking outside. It was 7:45 and another beautiful day. Pugnar was down in the garden chasing Ruffy. Harry laughed and transformed into Feathers.

Pugnar saw Harry and did what looked like a grin to Harry, then took off after him. The wind rushing under his wings felt glorious. It was better than flying on a broom. He started doing twists and turns, and then started following Pugnar around his land. Apparently they had quite the acreage in the back. They flew over the pond and dipped in slightly. They flew over all of the trees and the fields. Harry could see even the tiniest critters from so far away. There were other wild animals but nothing so huge that he had any reason to be afraid. Across from one of the fields was a large wild garden with fruits and plants. In the trees he could see a couple other small snakes and plenty of tree animals. Hedwig had found them at some point and started flying with them. After a while, Harry turned back to go home. It was funny, but after all of that flying he wasn't even that tired.

Harry flew in through the kitchen window and transformed mid stop, stumbling, but staying on his feet. Dudley smiled at him. "That must be outrageously fun."

Harry laughed. "I'll show you some time. I'll get you a broom to fly with me on. As long as you don't gain all your weight back, you'll be fine."

Dudley threw a piece of bacon at him. "Ay, shut up. Anyway, are you almost ready? You said you were going to meet the Runners around ten."

Harry checked his iPhone. It was almost nine. "Yeah," he said sitting down to eat, "just let me eat and grab a shirt and we'll go. Are you excited?" Dudley looked like he was about to faint. Harry laughed. "Don't worry, she agreed to go out with you, so I'm sure it will go fine."

"Yeah, but it's just that this is my first date ever…" he shrugged. "I told Dad and he told me that if I didn't make a move by the end of the night, I just wasn't a man."

"Not a man," Harry scoffed. "Your father is a big headed bigot. Don't listen to him. A _man_ would make a move when the girl is ready. Not before then, trust me. It's horrible when you do." He nodded toward the study. "You can ask my Dad if you want, that's what he told me when I told him about the girl I kissed last year and the other one who kissed me when I went to get the goblins."

Dudley nodded. "Yeah, I guess your right."

Before they left, Harry told Dobby and Winky what was going to happen today. "Here's what's going on. Dudley is going out on a date and I'm going to meet some new mates from London. Were going to be out until after lunch, but they are going to come back here with us."

"Does your wants Winky to makes some dinners, sir?" asked Winky.

Harry shook his head. "I would, Winky, but these mates are muggles. They don't know about house elves." He looked from Dobby to Winky. "I was wondering if you two wouldn't mind not being here until after they left? I need you to watch Pugnar so the muggles won't see him…"

Dobby jumped up and down. "Yes, sir, Harry Potters has much land pasts the ponds, sir. Winky and Dobby will goes through the garden and keeps sir's griffins well kept!" Winky nodded in agreement.

Harry smiled at the two. "Brilliant! Alright, now I only have to get Pugnar to be alright…" he mumbled, walking outside. "Pugnar!" he called out.

A minute later the great creature landed near Harry. "Hey boy, that was fast!" He pet Pugnar as the griffin puffed his chest out, proud. "So this is what's going to go down… We have some muggle friends coming back home later. DO NOT go near them." The griffin huffed. "I don't care what you think, these are muggles. They don't know about griffins. I can hold my own if any of them try to pull anything." He pet Pugnar again, softly. "I need to you to protect Dobby and Winky later anyway. Just because we haven't seen any bad creatures doesn't mean there aren't any." The griffin gave a reluctant nod. "Thanks. And hey, if you want to hid in the tree over there when we first come back, that's fine. Just don't be seen." Harry pet the griffin again before walking away.

"Ready to go then, Feathers?" Dudley asked.

Harry put his black baseball hat on. "Don't hate," he said in an american accent. They laughed and left to go to the city.


	7. Blush

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Anyway, just wanted to tell everyone that this chapter is a little fluffy at the end, so please notice the rating. Tell me what you think. There's another chapter coming shortly, I promise!**

* * *

To say Harry was having the time of his life might be a huge understatement. Harry couldn't remember a time when he had ever had fun without magic, but today was fantastic.

The card brothers, as Harry called the group, were able to teach Harry tons of moves so he wouldn't get hurt. "I'm serious, Feathers. You are a natural," Joker went on after Harry jumped across some of the building with them.

Harry laughed. "It's so much fun! And I know that my dad would be proud having a son who could jump over building without-… anything. It's awesome, the feeling!" He looked down at his hands and grimaced. "Except for the new blisters…"

Jack laughed. "Yeah, we all had that problem when we first started."

"So, what about your cousin, Aced? You think he will be as good?" Prince asked him.

Harry thought for a minute. "Well, I don't know. I mean, he just lost all his baby fat and started working out this year, but with practice, he _could_ be good?"

"It's alright. Not everyone is cut out for being a street runner," Jack explained. "Our friend back in America, Chase, he used to video everything so we could post it and get reviews. You know… keep track of our best and most amazing skills."

"Yeah," Joker piped in, "that and saving our asses from being sued if anyone wanted to go running with us and claimed we pushed 'em."

Everyone laughed. "Yeah, he might like taping it all… I'll ask him later. He's really good on the computer and all that crap. Even took a course at school for something like that…" His phone buzzed. "Speaking of the devil…" he snickered. It was a text from Dudley: _Hey, we're all done here, where are we meeting? _"He wants to know where we're meeting?"

Prince pointed to the Subway across the street. Harry nodded and text Dudley back: _The subway a few clocks over from where you dropped me off._ The card brothers jumped to the fire escape the building over, something Harry had yet to do. "It's good Feathers, just concentrate on getting you hands to the bar first and fling your feet over like your jumping a fence."

Harry nodded. He sprinted to the edge of the building and flung himself forward to the escape. _This is blooded CRAZY!_ His hands hit the bar and he quickly hopped and stopped himself from ramming into the wall by holding on tight. Adrenaline was rushing everywhere. _This is an amazing feeling when someone isn't trying to kill you._ He looked down at his hands. A blister had popped, but he made it across so it wasn't a a big deal. He slowly hopped off the escape and onto a closed dumpster following Prince.

Joker was scaling a wall holding onto a small ledge. He slowly made it to another bar where he walked down, then flipped when he was close enough to jump. Jack was running toward the wall full speed. Harry watched as he ran up the wall and did a back flip. They ran out to the street and crossed it heading to Subway.

Dudley had just parked his car and walked in after them. "How was it, Feathers?"

Harry turned and grinned. "Bloody amazing. You don't look too bad, the date went well then?"

Dudley smiled. "Yeah, I _aced _it. This girls a lot of fun, you would like to meet her." He turned back to the card brothers. "Hey fellas, enjoying yourselves?"

They all greeted Dudley and went to the counter to order. Harry decided to pay because they were new to England still. Well, that was his excuse anyway. "Yeah, I recently acquired a bit of money. Why not spread the wealth?" They all laughed, thanking him for lunch.

"So, Aced, what classes did you take in school this year?" Prince asked.

"Well, I finished math and science so I concentrated on History, latin, English, and video. Why do you ask?"

Jack took over. "Well, we noticed yesterday when we saw Feathers jumping around that you weren't jumping as much. He said that you would be good to go with practice, but we really need a camera man if your interested?"

Dudley thought about it. "Yeah, that would be a lot better." Everyone smiled in relief. "Besides, jumping around isn't really my thing. I got an A+ anyway, why not use my obvious skill?"

Harry laughed. "Yeah," he turned to the card brothers. "Should we go and buy some equipment? I brought a bunch of money with me, I wouldn't mind spending most of it."

Joker smiled. "Sick, we love shopping!" The others turned to him and gave him a look. "Well, I love shopping. Where can we find good stuff around here?"

They finished eating and went to the store. "Wow, that camcorder is amazing! HD, DVD disk, look at the zoom!" Joker was flipping.

Prince chuckled. "Well, might as well pick something out Aced."

Everyone looked around for a while. Harry persuaded the brothers to get some games for the house saying that he and Dudley hadn't really gotten too many. They ended up buying more controllers and even a few gaming seats that the boys said they would be able to fit in the car and take to the house. Dudley was able to distract everyone as Harry pulled a small stack of high priced bills out of his wallet and pay for everything.

They made one last stop on the way to the brothers' car to get candy and other crap that Dudley and Harry hadn't bought that week. Pizza bagels were apparently a huge thing in America and they ended up getting enough boxes to keep Hagrid full for a week.

They made it to the car and stocked it up. Harry and Dudley went to their own car and put the hood down. They waited for the card brothers and pulled out, blasting the speakers. It had been a very quick ride, and Harry remembered to say the names of everyone upon entering the driveway. The gates opened and Dudley and Harry waited anxiously for the card brothers to pull in behind them. Everything went smoothly and accordingly as everyone brought the things inside.

"Sweet place," said Prince as the boys took their shoes off. Harry walked them over to the living room.

"Woah…" Jack was looking at the stereo system, TV, and computer in the room. "You weren't lying when you said you wanted to spend some cash."

Dudley and Harry laughed, putting all of the food in the kitchen. "Want anything to drink?" Harry called as Dudley went back to help set up everything.

"Lemonade," Dudley called. Harry got a pitcher and a bunch of glasses and carried them over along with a bag of chips. They were going through the games and picked out a new war one. They played until it got dark and everyone decided they were hungry.

"PIZZA!" Joker chanted.

"BAGELS!" Jack screamed.

Harry noticed that Ruffy was jumping up and down outside so that he could watch them. Harry laughed and opened the window. Ruffy jumped into Harry's arms. He eagerly licked Harry's face and walked over to the group. "Yo, ill dog you got there. He nice?" Joker asked.

In response Ruffy jumped out of Harry's arms and pounced on Joker, wagging his tail. Joker laughed. "I guess so!"

Harry put the pizza bagels in the oven and set the timer. Then he checked his vibrating phone. It was Ginny: _Hell just let loose. They know that you aren't at the Dursley's. Might want to send an owl…_ Harry sighed and turned to the group. "I have to go make a quick call, don't break anything while I'm out."

Harry ran upstairs. Quickly he scrawled messily on a piece of parchment.

_Ron-_

_If anyone asks where I am, tell them I can't tell but I'm really safe now. I wasn't going to just sit around and wait for Death Eaters to find me there in the Dursley's. _

_I'm fine, really._

_-Harry_

"Hedwig?" The bird flew over. He tied the knot quickly. "Take this to Ron right away." She nodded. "Thanks, girl." Hedwig flew out the window, pumping her wings. Harry returned downstairs.

"Fresh out of the oven!" said Jack putting all the Pizza bagels on the plate. Harry suggested they watch a movie while they ate. Everyone agreed.

Three movies, four games of poker, eight boxes of Pizza Bagels, four bottles of soda, and three bags of chips and candy later, the card brothers decided it was time they got going.

"We had a great time tonight," Prince said as they started leaving.

"Yeah, we're happy to have you two part of the crew," Jack added.

"We have to work this week but each of us have off on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Those sound like good times to meet?" Joker asked them.

"I have a date same time and place as last time, but I'm good for Friday and Wednesday?" Dudley turned to Harry.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much good. Don't really have anything else going on. Text me on Wednesday for details though? You guys are welcome to come over anytime, just give one of us a heads up." Harry told them.

"Alright, thanks again, Feathers. 'Til next time." The boys got in the car and drove off. Harry waited until they were out of the drive to call out, "Pugnar, Dobby, Winky! It's okay to come back now!"

In no time the griffin and elves were in front of him. "How was your evenings, sir?" Winky asked.

"It was very good, actually. My hands are a bit sore, but nothing that can't heal." He smiled at them. "How was your day?"

Apparently the group had been quite busy. Dobby had captured a few different rare creatures that he thought Harry would like to keep and hid them in the cellar. Overall, Dobby had said that it was a very good day indeed.

Harry returned upstairs. Hedwig was waiting for him with a letter. Harry gave Hedwig an owl treat and read the letter.

Harry

What do you mean you left? Mum is going out of her bloody mind and Dumbledore has everyone trying to track you. He wants to know where you are. He thinks you were taken by a death eater or something. Just tell us where you are. It's not safe, you of all people should know that.

Stop being a git and go back to your Aunt's. Snape is bound to tell you-know-who soon.

Mum made me say that last part. I know your Aunts sucks, but, I don't know.

Stay safe, please?

Ron

Harry crumpled up the letter. _Dumbledore would just bring me back to that house again. He didn't tell me about anything and Sirius died. I won't let that happen again. _He took out his phone and texted Ginny. 'Hey, are you able to talk on the phone?'

Harry paced in his room, waiting for a reply. His phone started ringing and he picked it up. "Hey."

"Hi, Harry. Can we do this quickly, I had to sneak to Sirius' room. Said I was going to feed Buckbeack…"

"Oh. Well, I'll get straight to it then. do you know where they have been looking?"

"Well really, everywhere, they don't even know if it's you writing the letters."

"Alright, I'll stop by tomorrow…?"

"How? You could get hurt! _EVERYONE _is looking for you, Harry!"

"Gin, it will be alright, no problems. I got here fine, didn't I?" He heard her hesitate. "Want me to come by tonight to show you I can do it?"

"I'm just worried. You-know-who is bound to know your not home by now. They will be looking…"

"Alright, Gin. Just stay up 'til one, and tell your cards to try to sound proof your room."

There was a muffled voice. "Yeah Mum, be right there!" she called. "Be safe please, Harry?"

"I will. See you in a bit."

Harry hung up the phone and sent a quick note to Ron saying that he would arrive tomorrow at headquarters. He told Harry to drop it off and not wait for a reply.

Harry started thinking fast. _Alright, I've waited all day to think about this. Now what? Dumbledore knows I'm gone. That means Snape is going to know soon, if he doesn't already. He probably does. That means Voldemort knows. He'll be looking for me now. They're bound to find out more soon. I need a plan. Dudley and I need a few plans… _

He took out a clean journal from the box Dobby had told him about, bringing the box to his room. He opened up to the first page and titled it **Plans**. He started to make a list.

Hiding places.

Allies.

A Teacher.

Information.

Save People.

He and Dudley were safe for now, but that didn't mean much. Harry knew that they would need people who would help him throughout the war. He thought on the third one and figured he could get Dumbledore to teach him a few things over the school year if he really bugged him about it, but it might be too late by then. Remus and Moody might be able to teach him a few things, but that would be very limited and he wouldn't be able to see them too much… Information was a different story. Dumbledore liked to hide stuff like that, but he was sure that he would give him information on Voldemort during the year. After the prophecy was relieved, how could he keep any information from him? Then again, he probably wouldn't tell him anything about the order… Saving people was the most important thing and Harry figured that he could do that by getting some hiding places and allies. Ultimately he would end up saving people once he defeated Voldemort, but that would take a while to get up to Voldemort on the power scale…

He took out four journals and titled them on the first page of each one, using his new nick name, Feathers. The first was named **Hiding Places**, the second was **Allies**, the third was titled **Information** and the last was simply **Ideas.** He wouldn't need a book just for a teacher, that was just something that would need thinking about. He didn't have anything to write in the books yet, save for the ideas one, so he put the journals away.

He laid on his bed and thought. _I could possibly use my extra properties and houses as hiding spots… maybe even a hotel that Bognok said I owned. The goblins treat me very nicely, I consider them friends. It might take some persuading, but we could possibly be future allies. Hermione and Ron were there no matter what, and probably Ginny as well. Maybe I can even get Hermione to help me with research. Ron would help, but he wouldn't really get much done. Maybe Hermione would even be able to help me learn about Ancient Runes. From what I've read and heard about them, a lot of powerful magic can be used in them. Everyone in the DA would certainly back me up during the war, save that tool who ratted us out. The card brothers might back him up in a street fight, but that wouldn't do much good in the wizarding world. Remus would certainly help him in every way possible, but only if it didn't go against Dumbledore. Maybe he would change his mind if he spent more time with me. He would teach me to defend myself if I asked, but it would be difficult for him to find the time to hangout and really be able to teach me full on. The centures might possibly be allies with me if I could figure out a way that the stars were aligned in my favor. As much as I hate saying it, the ministry is my enemy at this point, and they were the centures enemy as well. That old saying, an enemy of an enemy is a friend, that would be good to use to pursued them. Dobby is my ally, well I consider him one. And Winky. If they have friends, they might be possible allies in the future. But I don't want them to feel like they have to fight. I wish this weren't so difficult! _Harry rolled over and screamed into his pillow. Life can be so frustrating. _There has to be something that I can do to better _my _chances in the war… Pugnar. I could raise griffins! That would do me loads of good if anyone tried to attack me on my property. I remember what Pugnar looked like when he was only TEASING Dudley, let alone what he would look like to someone he thought was going to hurt me. I'll just ask Griphook or Bognok about it… I should see them tomorrow anyway. _

Harry stood up and walked over to his closet, finding the boxes of lozenges that he had bought from the travel store. He opened up a box and found everything in order. Once he found the Latin lozenge, he opened up the wrapper and popped it in his mouth. It was a very interesting feeling, absorbing language on your tongue. Harry thought that he could actually feel his mouth learning the vocabulary. He did a quick look around his room and found that he could name a few of the objects in latin, and the ones he couldn't, he just had to wait a few seconds until he realized the word. It was like a book had just opened in his brain. _Hermione is going to go crazy once I give her one of these._ He smiled and decided it was a good idea to take a shower.

When he got out of the shower he put in his contacts and examined his body. There were a few scratches here and there, a black and blue on his back. It was nothing that wouldn't heal though, so he wasn't worried. He made sure his hair was at a nice, shortish length, not worrying about Ginny seeing his scar or not. He changed into a pair of shorts and a white shirt, then put on his favorite black baseball cap.

Harry wrote a note to Dudley saying to text him if he wasn't home in the morning. He walked outside and called for Pugnar. The griffin landed in front of him and walked over to Harry. "Hey boy, that was fast! Your getting stronger, aren't you?" The griffin held his head slightly higher. Harry laughed and started petting the glorious animal. "I'm going to go out for a while, think you can handle holding down the fort until I get back later?" Pugnar nodded. "Thanks, boy. I'll see you later. Why don't you go to bed? It's getting late…" Harry gave the griffin a hug and walked inside. "Dobby?" he called out.

Dobby was at his side in less than a minute. Ruffy wasn't far behind. He jumped into his arms and gave Harry a lick on the cheek. "Good boy. Alright Dobby, think you can do me a favor today?"

Dobby literally jumped up and down with excitement. "Of courses, Harry Potters, Sir!"

"Alright, I need you to apparate me into Ginny's room at Grimmauld Place, but as quietly as you can?" The elf nodded. "And then I'll call for you later and you will take me home?" he asked.

Dobby nodded again. "Anything fors Harry Potter!" Dobby latched on his arm and suddenly Harry felt the mind numbing apparation. He was in Ginny's room and felt Dobby let go of his arm and apparate home with a soft POP. He scanned the room but wasn't able to finish because he was tackled to the bed in a bone crushing hug from behind.

"You made it okay…" he heard a soft voice say into his shoulder. He gently loosened the grip so he could turn and give Ginny a hug.

"I told you I would…" he inhaled Ginny's hair deeply and found that it comforted him. Her grip around him hadn't relaxed so he started to gently run his hand through her hair. "I'm fine, honest."

Ginny looked up at him and took off his had, throwing it on the side of the bed so she could see him better. "You're not fine, Harry," she whispered.

Harry looked away. "I'm just stressed out is all." Ginny nodded and moved her head to rest on his chest. "Why don't you tell me about it, Harry?" she asked, listening to his heart beat.

He thought for a little while, playing with her hair. "Well," he started after a few minutes of listening to each other breathe, "I really don't know… you can't tell _anyone. _Not Ron, Hermione, and especially not your mum." Ginny rested her chin on his chest and looked into his eyes. She nodded. "Well, when we went to the Department of Mysteries," he stalled, his eyes watering. Ginny's hands crept behind Harry's shoulders and she started massaging him gently. He looked at her and gave a small smile then continued. "Well, Voldemort," he paused when Ginny shuddered. "He tried to possess me." Her hands stopped and she furrowed her eyebrows. "He wasn't successful though. He was trying to get me to remember all of the bad things in my life, turn me _dark_ or something. He threw the memory of my parents at me, and it was sad, but it was loving. He didn't realize that I would feel love in seeing my parents protect me, give their lives for me. He wasn't prepared for the feeling. It happened so quickly and I just threw everything I had at him. All of the feelings of friendship over the years, the few feelings of love that I had and cherished. He couldn't take it though. He gave up his search of my brain. I'm sure it was a search… he thought I had something he wanted, but I didn't have it until later… he left my brain and we all left the ministry. Dumbledore kept me in his office and he… he showed me… I heard my prophecy." He shifted slightly to hold Ginny closer, not wanting to loss himself to his emotions. Ginny hugged him closer and he held her tightly. She was trying to sooth him as best as she could, massaging his neck gently and saying it would be alright. "But Ginny," he finally managed to get out. "I'm the one. The only one who can kill Voldemort. I have to kill him. There's… there's no one else…" Ginny had gone completely still as Harry struggled with his war of emotions. "Please, say something," he begged her.

"Harry," her voice was thick and wet. "You'll be able to do it." She pulled back to look deep into his moist eyes. "You can do it. You have help. You have love…"

Harry stopped her. "I won't have love for long. Once people find out, no one will want to be near me. I have to be killed. He is going after ME." His eyes had begun to tear and it was breaking Ginny's heart.

She wiped away his tears and told him with a croaky voice, "You will always have love, Harry… As long as I am around, it will always be there." Before either of them realized it, their lips were together.

Harry felt on fire suddenly. Passion and desire coursed threw him. He moved his lips and let his tongue slide across Ginny's lower lip, faintly remembering the sensation it had given himself. If you could call what he did with Cho and Glindy kissing, then this wasn't even on the same scale. Their tongues were tasting each other, comforting one another, all the while setting hormones loose with every stroke and every touch.

Soon Harry found himself on top of Ginny. One of her hands was in his short hair, pulling him deeper into the kiss. The other was on his lower back inside his shirt. He used his hand that was under her to trace her spine, the other was tangled in her hair. Both pulled Ginny closer and up against him. Ginny let out a deep moan that set Harry's monster loose. He had no idea what he was doing, but he let his instincts take over.

Ginny's hands were at the bottom of his shirt, pulling it over his head. They quickly removed the vile garment and threw it near his hat. Harry's mouth was at Ginny's jaw line, then her sensitive spot behind her ear. The feeling made Ginny loose herself to Harry. Her hips bucked without thought. Harry hissed as the sensation coursed through him again. Ginny used the opportunity to remove her own shirt and attack his neck. Suddenly the tables were turned and Ginny was straddling Harry, hands flying everywhere to remember each muscle, each twitch and the taste and feel of each other's skin.

Harry looked, dazed, at the sexy red head on top of him. Her red, lacy bra was turning him on almost as much as what Ginny's lips were doing. Almost, but not quite. Ginny's hips moved against him, massaging what desperately needed to be massaged. Harry hissed, then moaned, "Ginevra…" She looked down at him, eyes dark with desire. He stared for another second before flipping them over and crushing their swollen lips together. His lips moved to the hollow on her neck, making her hips buck and legs open. Encouraged, Harry lowered his lips further down to the middle of her chest. Licking and kissing the slight cleavage of Ginny, Harry was rewarded with the sight of Ginny's naked breasts. His left hand moved to cup one, while his mouth explored the other. Ginny's hand pulled his head gently onto her more, while the other lowered to his bum. As soon as she squeezed him he moaned and bucked against her. "Harry-" she moaned, now squeezing his bum with both hands.

He moved against her again and they both moaned slightly. Harry pulled Ginny's body against him, feeling her hard nipples against his bare chest. They eagerly brought their mouths together, moaning and breathing more and more shallowly until Harry was moving as fast as he could against her, his tongue sharply and passionately moving in time with his hips. Ginny's legs wrapped around him and her hands were scratching his back as he brought on an orgasm.

Feeling her body twitch in his hands and against him sent Harry over the edge. He pulled back and looked into her black eyes. She stared back into his dark black eyes and bit her lip concentrating on the stare. "Harry-"

"Ginevra-" they moaned and collapsed onto the bed breathing deeply and holding one another. Ginny got cold quickly, and pulled herself closer into Harry. He returned the favor and covered her as best as he could. "Gin?: he whispered once their breathing was under control.

"Hm..?" she answered, listening to his heart beat again.

"Did you… Did you mean what you said?"

"Harry, of course," she pulled up and gently kissed him. They stared at each other. "And I know you can do it. After what you've gone through, you can do anything. I'll help you, just don't feel alone in this, Harry." He nodded and kissed her gently. He noticed a very sticky problem and decided he had better get going.

Harry pulled away and watched Ginny yawn. "Gin, I think you should get some sleep." She nodded but clutched Harry tighter. He chuckled and picker her up, moving the blankets, then lowering the gorgeous (and still topless, he mentally added) red head down. She pulled his head down and kissed him again. "You know, Ginevra, when you blush," he looked into her eyes, watching her slowly fall asleep, exhausted, "you blush _all_ over." He tucked the blanket around her, gathered the cards that were on patrol and put them away. He grabbed his things and called for Dobby who brought a VERY tired, and slightly messy, Harry home.


	8. Ritnot

Harry woke up early that morning despite his late night. _Wow, that happened._ He was still in slight shock at what had gone on between himself and the youngest Weasley. He checked his phone and noticed that it was only seven, so he decided he would run for a little while before breakfast. First he wrote a note to Bognok requesting a meeting for that morning, then he set Ruffy on Dudley's treadmill and got to work. After 15 kilometers, Harry decided he was ready to start the day. "Morning, Harry," Dudley said, stopping on the stairs. "I was just looking for you. Everything alright?"

Harry shrugged. "I have to go to the Order today so everyone sees that I'm alive, but before that I'm meeting with the goblins, hopefully." He went upstairs. Deciding he would travel in his car, Harry put on his _James disguise_. Contacts and new robes did wonders for changing his appearance. Hedwig flew in with a reply from Bognok.

_Mr. Harry Potter,_

_Yes, I would enjoy meeting you and Griphook this morning for tea and business in my office. Griphook agreed to come as well._

_Bognok_

Harry left shortly after applying the cream to his forehead. He arrived in London, parking his car in a garage for the day. Checking to make sure he had everything, he continued into Diagon Alley. No one was out yet. He quickly made it to the bank without problems. "Griphook," he smiled extending his hand. He noticed other goblins staring and whispering excitedly to one another.

"It's good to see you, Harry." They continued to a more private area, Bognok's office.

"Well if it isn't my favorite wizard, Harry Potter!" Harry felt vague chills go up his spine when the goblin ginned, but returned the good spirit.

"Favorite wizard you say? Mum would be proud." They laughed, sitting in the chairs.

"Harry, I have made good use of the black diamond you gave us. I'll have you know that this went down in the goblin textbooks as best gift," Bognok told him.

Harry shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah, well, it would have just sat in the vault anyway… oh, thanks," he said, accepting the tea from Griphook.

"This is our best Tea, Harry. Supposedly it helps the youth magic mature quicker, while being said to keep the person unchanged. Of course, no one knows if that's true or not, but us Goblins say, why not drink if it's good for you and tastes good?" Griphook nodded and sipped the tea, Harry eagerly following his lead downed his cup.

_This is really good._ Harry smiled. "Thanks, this is nice. It doesn't really taste like normal tea, but then again, I think it might be a little bit better."

The goblins agreed with him. Bognok turned to Harry. "While you are here, Harry, we have made quite a few interesting finds in your records." Harry's eyebrows raised. "Yes, Griphook being your adviser was a very good choice. Since he is so young, no other wizards would want to take him up as their advisers, thus you being his main priority where as most wizards in that position have more than ten wizards to deal with. He has done extensive research on all of your paper work, and showed me some of his recent finds."

"You have quite a lot, Harry," Griphook told him. "The Whites, Smits, Blacks, Gryffindors, and Potters all owned businesses, stocks, shares and had multiple investments, all over the world."

"Well I don't think I can say that I'm honestly surprised. It seems I learn something new and get much richer every time I'm here."

The goblins chuckled. "What did you want to talk about, Harry?" Bognok asked.

Harry sighed. "Well, recently I have realized that the future lays on my shoulder." The goblins nodded in understanding. "I was hoping I would be able to count on you in the future, to aid my cause?"

Bognok leaned in, staring at the young wizard in front of him. "It is rare, Harry, for wizards to fight wars that have nothing to do with the goblins. The previous war, which you ended, wasn't completely focused against goblins. However, the Dark Lord killed and tortured goblins when the chance came about. Goblins have learned in the past to accept what happens in wars we are not invited to fight in. You wee, my predecessor had sought help during one of the Dark Lord's attacks, and received a 'no thank you' from the head master of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore. We offered future support and aid if wizards would come and help us, but our offers were said to deaf ears and no help was given. I do fear of an attack in this war, and would like to accept your offer, but" he said when Harry's face lit up, "I would prefer if the wizards be kept in the dark of this… agreement? I would like to thoroughly go over it with Ritnot first. Even then, it would probably be best if the general public did not hear of this."

Harry nodded quickly. "Of course, I wasn't planning on telling too many people. Only three or four. It might get up to twenty if one person finds out, but we can hope that won't happen."

Griphook smiled at Harry. "Do you have any other business you would like to go over?"

Harry thought, then nodded. "I was thinking of ways to be better off in the war, and had a few ideas. I was hoping that you would be able to help, and I will pay in full." Bognok took out a piece of parchment. Harry chuckled. "Fast learner, I see." Griphook laughed. "Well, if I remember correctly, I had quite a few properties and houses?"

"Absolutely correct, Harry," Griphook answered.

"I was wondering if they could all be placed under the same or similar securities as my current house? If you are able to do this, I wouldn't mind having one of the properties for goblins to use in the future as a safe haven."

Bognok and Griphook looked surprised, but recovered quickly. We are sure that your offer of a safe haven will be accepted by the goblins. We wouldn't be able to do all of your properties this week, if you don't mind I think we could fit it in nicely to do one property a day?"

"That would be perfect. Do you know where the safe haven would best suit the needs of the goblins?"

"Well… if we are talking ideal choices, I believe Montrino's cove is the largest and most hospitable for us, but-"

"Consider it done," Harry said, extending his hand. Bognok grinned and shook on it.

"You know, Harry," said Griphook, "if you continue giving us so much, people are really going to believe all of those stories of goblins stealing from old wizarding families with money."

They all laughed. "Right. I was also wondering, Griphook, if you wouldn't mind coming over a few times a week… I know you don't have any other families to take care of, so if I can make you a sort of assistant of mine, would you agree to it?"

"It would be an honor, Harry. Plus, I think I would be fired for not helping our richest and favorite banker?" he teased.

"Right as usual, Griphook." Bognok was signing some papers. "I set it for Griphook to arrive at your home every other day, please remember that your wards block him from coming in or out, so you will have to change that immediately."

Harry agreed and signed the contract, officially declaring Griphook his personal assistant. They moved on from there and Harry signed agreements for the wards, but the goblins would only accept a forth of what would have been paid normally, because of what Harry was doing with Montrino's Cove and the black diamond. Then Griphook gave Harry all of the papers he had to sign to become the legal holder of all of his shares and so on. Harry noticed that none of the investments were for Weasley's Weezes and asked Griphook to make appropriate arrangements.

They set up a schedule of all of the properties, Montrino's Cove would be warded first and set for the goblins' needs so they would be able to build what they would need in an emergency. Bognok gave Harry a folder that held the ward list for each property and labeled each one. Although the wards weren't active, the parchment would immediately begin working when each ward was set.

It was getting late and Harry was preparing to leave. He stood to shake the two goblins' hands when the doors were pushed open by an upset goblin. "Ralshot, what-?" Bognok was interrupted.

"What we have feared has happened, Bognok. Ritnot was unable to beat his sickness. I am sorry for him, but happy for you. Congratulations, sir," Ralshot said quickly before leaving.

"Ritnot?" Harry asked Griphook.

"Yes, leader of us goblins, president of Gringotts. Bognok is now the president of Gringotts." Griphook clarified.

Harry felt uncomfortable. "I'm sorry, I must leave. Will there be a service of some kind to celebrate your promotion?" harry asked.

Bognok sat down in his chair. Harry turned to Griphook. "Yes, most likely Bognok will have a celebration for becoming president of Gringotts. A wizard has never before come to an induction, then again, we have never been allies with a wizard, either. I will bring over details in two days when I have to stop by." He turned to Bognok. "Sir, do you need anything?"

Bognok looked up at them both, clearing his throat. "No, thank you, Griphook. I would be grateful to have Harry at the ceremony." He cleared his throat again and turned his chair away.

Griphook and Harry walked out. "Well Harry, would you like to stop by any of your vaults?"

Harry thought it over for a while. "No, but would you be able to take over all of the different trunks? I saw many stored in the Potter vault and I'm interested to see what might be in them…"

"I would love to, and as for that company you were interested with, the one with griffins, I believe it was called Griflots? I will take a closer look into the information and bring the forms over later as well."

"Alright, if I'm not home, Dudley will let you in."

The goblin stopped Harry before they went to the main hallway. "Harry, your scar is slightly visible…"

Harry shot him a grateful look and quickly applied the solution. "Thanks. Is it gone?"

"Yes, Harry. Thank you for stopping by. I will see you on Tuesday if not later." They shook hands and Harry walked off to the stores, getting to his car as quickly as he could. He got home around lunch and told Dudley about all he had learned.

"Well, I think I could help you with a few things. First, your defense against the dark arts work. We should focus the most on that, but you should do most of that work since there isn't much that I can do in that subject… But I could read up on the charms and potions, write down all the interesting things, maybe even help you with a potion or two."

"Alright. We could work on potions Monday, Charms Tuesday. Wait, no, I'll be busy Tuesday. Charms Thursday? And maybe I'll do some Transfiguration then also…"

"Okay. I'm going to go work out a bit, what are you doing the rest of the day?"

Well, I think I'll head over to Headquarters at four. I'm actually not sure how that will go… I was hoping I would be able to get in and out, but that isn't going to happen… I'd ask you to come, but they have wards and I'm not sure I want to break them."

Dudley understood. "It's okay, mate. I doubt they would like having a moogal in their house anyway."

Harry snorted. "Muggle, Dudley. And, it's my house so they don't really have a say if I _did _decide to take you. When you finish, do you want to get some reading done? I could use help with finding potions to brew. You remember that room I told you was in my closet?" Dudley nodded. "Well that has tons of books. We should look there first."

Harry went upstairs and found Winky in his room, organizing everything in the folder he had brought home and on the desk. "Oh, thanks, Winky."

The little elf turned around. "Does Harry Potters needs anythings, sir?"

"No, I'm fine. I was just going to get some work done."

"Yes sir. Sir? Winky was wonderings whats yous or Mr. Dudley's wants to dos with the master room, sir?"

"What do you mean, Winky?"

"Well, Winkys noticed that Harry Potters and Dudleys never uses the room. What does you wants Winkys and Dobbys to do, sir?"

Harry pondered the thought. He hadn't realized that he could possibly change that room around. Griphook was coming by later with all of the trunks and that was bound to take up tons of room. Plus, it might be useful just to have that room cleared away. "Yes, Winky, I think that is a good idea. Thanks."

"Winkys and Dobbys will store everythings in a trunk and places its in the hall closets, sir." Winky bowed and left the room.

Harry checked his desk. It was very tidy and organized. Winky had stocked the top with a few clean quills and black ink bottles. The drawers held supplies, parchment, and the clean journals Dobby had found. Harry looked through the ward folder and added Dudley and Griphook to each one. He thought about it for a minute before deciding to add Ron, Hermione and Ginny to his house list, in case of an emergency.

He put the list away and grabbed a clean journal. He flipped open the first page and wrote **Potions by Feathers**. He smiled at the name and took some ink with him up to his potions room. He thought it was going to be hard to maneuver, but when he got to his closet he saw a ladder going up to the corner of the ceiling. He carefully climbed it and opened the secret door. Once he was inside, Harry put down his things and started looking at a book to begin. He found one titled **Easy Solutions for Self Improvement** and decided that was the book for him.

Harry was able to write down a few potions, and the tips that were usually penciled in on the sides, that would help himself and Dudley before his cousin joined him. Dudley found a similar book and was very curious about some of the ingredients.

After a while, Dudley and Harry had each written over fifteen potions. Harry had finished his book and returned it to the shelf, looking for a new one when his phone started vibrating. It was a text from Ginny: '_People are starting to arrive. Be careful on your way here. I had the cards lock up my room, so you can come in through there.' _"Alright, Aced. I'm going to get ready and leave. If I'm not back in three hours, text me. See ya later."

"Alright, I'll be up here probably. Catch ya later."

Harry took a quick shower and put on his glasses. He changed his hair back to the normal Harry head and left his scar alone, but tried to hide it as always. Once he finished he went on his balcony. "Pugnar!" The griffin landed in front of him shortly after. "Hey boy, how have you been?" The griffin nuzzled its head into Harry's chest. "I love you too, boy. I have to leave for a while, okay, Pugnar?" The griffin nuzzled his chest again. "If anyone else stops by who shouldn't be here, you can eat them." Pugnar looked at Harry, with what Harry thought was a griffin grin. "Yes, good boy. But, there is a goblin stopping by, Griphook. He is okay. He is going to be coming by often, so please be nice to him." Pugnar nodded. Harry pet the large griffin before it took off into the sky. "Dobby?" Harry called out. Dobby popped up in front of him.

"Yes, Harry Potters, sir?" The little elf asked.

"Would you mind taking me to Ginny's room again? And picking me up later as well, please?" Harry asked Dobby nicely.

"Of courses, Harry Potters! Dobby's would loves to!" One soft POP later and Harry was in Ginny's room. Dobby let go of his arm and popped away. Harry unlocked the door and made his was quickly downstairs.

"HARRY!" He was taken into a bear hug that could only belong to Mrs. Weasley. "Oh, you're alright!" She moved back and put on a very stern face. "Never scare us like that again!"

Harry smiled, ducking his head. "I'll try not to, Mrs. Weasley."

"Harry?!" It was Hermione this time who grabbed him in a giant hug.

"Hermione! I see you are doing better?" he said, returning the hug.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine now." Hermione pulled away. "You really shouldn't have run off like that…" then she hugged him again and whispered gently, "but I understand."

Harry was taken aback slightly by Hermione's acceptance of his running off and disobeying Dumbledore. He smiled at her and turned to see Ron walking over. "Hey mate!" he said, giving Ron a one arm hug/chest bump thing.

"Good to see your alive then, mate," Ron said. He was met by angry stares from around the room. Then he realized what he had said and tried to back peddle. "I… er… I only meant… erm…. uh-"

"Ron, it's alright, I understand," Harry laughed. Then he saw Ginny. She smiled at him and he went over to give her a hug.

"Gin, how have you been?" he asked her, pulling her into him.

Ginny sighed in his embrace. "It's been a hell of a summer…" she smiled and blushed remembering last night. Neither realized that it was a little longer of a hug than it should have been.

They broke the hug and Harry looked around for a second. Once he saw Ginny's blush he had to think of something else or he would a very quickly growing problem. He noticed Mrs. Weasley beaming at him and Hermione snickering while Ron was watching her. "Wotcher, Harry," Tonks said from the kitchen doorway.

"Tonks, it's good to see you!" he said, walking into the kitchen, following her. Most of the order was there and they all greeted Harry. Dumbledore walked out of the fireplace, briefly lit up in green flames. Everyone quieted as he looked over at Harry, eyes twinkling, then sat down. "I would like begin now, everyone?" he said looking around.

Everyone settled and Harry stood in between Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall. The Professor gave Harry a look that he couldn't quite place before turning and giving the headmaster her full attention. "Well, I would like to start the meeting, but before we do I think there are a few things we should go over, most of which will be answered by Mr. Potter?" Harry nodded, knowing all day that this was going to happen. "Harry," the headmaster started, "we had everyone here looking for you and I am proud to say, none were able to find you." Dumbledore was looking straight at Harry, with almost a proud look on his face.

Harry smirked. "I would think that is a good thing, sir?"

Dumbledore nodded and shook his head. "I figured you would not tell anyone where specifically you are. Although it is a good thing that you have not yet been found, I would not like to push our luck. I have spoken to your aunt and have learned that your cousin is gone as well?" Harry agreed with him. "Is he in trouble, Harry?"

"I would hope not, considering he has been living with me." He could see most of the members who had known even a little of his living problems shooting questioning looks at one another.

"Harry, how is it that you are so confident with your safety?" Dumbledore questioned further.

Harry knew that everyone was looking at him, all wanting to know the answer that they have been looking for all week. How did he do it? How was he still alive? He wanted to shade away out of the spot light, but knew that that would do absolutely nothing, so he stood there thinking of the best way to get out of the question and finding none. He sighed. "Well, I have had help this past week, improving the safety of my home."

"Would you care to enlighten us as to who has helped you, Harry?" the old wizard pursued.

Harry looked down and shuffled his feet. "I made an agreement to not inform anyone unless it was necessary, sir."

Dumbledore shook his head and looked around the room, seeing if it had been someone in the room. "Does anyone know?" All of the heads shook. "Harry, I think it is necessary that you informed us as to whom you have given the responsibility of your safety."

Harry was getting irritated. "No, it is not necessary. I know that everyone here has been looking for me, and no one has found me. I know that Voldemort-" there was a gasp from Mrs. Weasley, but he continued on, "has been looking for me as well. I think that it would be best if SOME," he looked in the corner where Snape was standing. The man glared back at him, "had not even the smallest _idea_ of where I am located. You can't even know if I am located in England. I have properties all over Europe and I bet you have only begun searching Britain. There is even some land in AFRICA that I own. All of this time, you have let me live a fucked up life in that hell hole, and are just beginning to look for other places where I might be staying? Did you even realize that I left on _Wednesday?_" He looked around the room to see all of the shocked faces. Most people had never seen Harry angry, and from the glass that exploded in front of Dumbledore, most were on the edge of their seats, ready for anything.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "No, Harry. I am sorry if you feel that I have let you down in the past, but I would like to move forward from here." Harry was trying to calm himself and let Mrs. Weasley rub a hand up and down his back. "Is there any possible way we can get you back to your aunts home?"

Harry let out a hallow laugh. "Sir, you still have to try to convince me to come back to _Hogwarts_ next year. I doubt we should be worrying about my current location. I am not going to change my position on the subject."

Mrs. Weasley started to object. "Harry! You have to go back-"

Dumbledore interrupted her. "You were thinking of not coming back to school this year, Harry?"

Harry stared at the old wizard. "I have been considering it when studying this summer." He saw Professor McGonagall's face out of the corner of his eye and she was in complete and utter shock at the news.

"Harry, what is it that will make you change your mind on returning to Hogwarts?" Dumbledore sighed, giving in.

"I want to be informed of all of the information that the Order has," people started to interrupt him, so he spoke over them, "BUT, I do not expect to be invited to any of the outings that might take place. Only meetings, such as the one tonight."

Dumbledore thought about it and finally accepted in the terms that Harry returned to Hogwarts that year. "Shall we continue with the meeting then?"

Mrs. Weasley was speechless. She just stood in utter shock watching Harry maneuver his way into a war that he should not know anything about. She would have told everyone her concerns, but couldn't form the words. Giving up, she sighed and stepped back, letting the meeting unfold.

"Alright, Severus, do you have any new information?"

Snape stepped forward, looking as greasy as ever, but noticeably worn. "Last night the Dark Lord experienced extreme pain in his head. There was nothing that anyone could do, and he was quite irate about that afterward. Potions were given and helped, but very little. The search for Potter," he spat the name as usual. Harry just continued to look at the man, an expression of nothing on his face. "has continued without success. Unlike members in the order, the Dark Lord _has_ thought of the possibility of a hiding spot in another country, though has not begun searching there yet. I believe he will move on to that idea shortly. Other than that, nothing of substance has happened. Death Eaters were told to lie low for a few weeks." Everyone took in the information.

Dumbledore turned to Remus. "Have you had any success, Remus, with the Werewolves?"

Remus shook his head. "No, everyone is trying not to have to chose sides in this, though I know of two werewolves who will probably side with Greyback on the matter."

"Hagrid, are you ready for your trip to see the giants again?" Dumbledore asked the half giant.

"Yeah, ther's 'sposed to be 'eavy rain, but tha' won't be slowin' me down," Hagrid said enthusiastically.

"Alright. Is there anything else that anyone would like to mention before we dismiss?" No one said anything. "In that case, we will meet again on Tuesday night at eight." Dumbledore called the meeting to an end and people began talking amongst themselves, some getting up to go to the living room, Snape just left.

Professor McGonagall had turned to face Harry. He smiled at his teacher, knowing that he was in for a scolding. "Mr. Potter-" they were both surprised when the Professor grabbed Harry and gave him a hug. It took him a minute to respond, but he hugged Professor McGonagall back. "You are so like your father, but your as smart as your mother." Harry could feel his throat closing up as the Professor gave him one last squeeze and pulled away to look at him. "I apologize, Mr. Potter, I don't know-"

Harry waved her off, quickly swiping at his eye. "Professor, thank you." He looked at her in the eye. "And when we are not in school, if you would rather call me Harry, I would like that." They smiled at each other before Harry's attention drifted toward Dumbledore.

"Harry, I was hoping that we would be able to talk for a little while?" Harry gave him a curious look, then accepted and walked away with Dumbledore to the corner of the room. Dumbledore looked very much his years suddenly, and Harry took note of it. "Harry, I do not know how you were able to get away, but I am quite worried about the hostility that I felt earlier." He put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I am sorry if you feel I made the wrong decisions, and I will try to do right by you in the future. I am sorry, Harry. I plan to have you get involved in the Order from now on, as long as you can promise me that we will not fight about you coming with us on trips and such. And, you will not be able to tell Ron or Hermione anything about our meetings." Harry made to object. "These are the term, Harry. I know that Ron and Hermione are your best friends, but they cannot know about these matters until they themselves are in the order. Then you will be able to tell those two whatever you may choose."

Harry thought it over and knew that he could ask for no more from the headmaster. He gently smiled at him. "Thank you, Dumbledore. I accept your apology and I accept the terms to which you want me to join."

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, the boy he had always thought of as a favorite, much like his mother and father. The truth was, not many were able to charm the man quite like that of Harry and his blood line. "Thank you, Harry. Now, I know that you are quite safe, but I would like to make a suggestion about your home?"

Harry chuckled. "I figured that wouldn't be the last of it…"

"Indeed, Harry. I would like to ask if you would have someone over to check up every few days or so? I would be private, and I would let you choose whom you would like to visit you, just as long as we can all know without a doubt that you are, in fact, completely safe like you say you are."

Harry looked around the room, wondering if he could trust anyone there with his life. "May I make a suggestion, Harry?" Harry nodded. "I think Minerva would do well to help you… and I know that she would enjoy possibly being able to spend time with you." He sighed. "As much as she had tried to hide it, I always knew that she favored you and your parents. Anyway, that was just a suggestion."

"Yeah, that sounds good if she would like to come over." Harry smiled when Dumbledore called 'Minney' over to talk with them.

"Minney, would you mind doing the order a favor?" She gave a curious nod. "Harry will need someone to check up on him every few days or so, and we thought that you would make an appropriate choice." Dumbledore smiled when the Professor lifted her chin in a proud manner, then looked at Harry.

"If Harry needs someone to check in, I wouldn't mind doing so." Harry knew she was trying to be professional, but he saw the corners of her mouth lift up in what might be considered a smile.

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said. This time she did not try to hide her smile, and Harry was surprised at the way it changed her face. She seemed younger and brighter. He couldn't help but wonder why she didn't smile more often. "Would you like to come with me tonight for dinner? We are having another guest as well."

The headmaster and Professor both looked surprised by this. "Who are you having over tonight, Harry?" She asked. Harry just smiled ruefully. "Well," she sighed, "I suppose I will just have to stay in suspense until then, won't I?"

"Glad to hear it, Professor." He looked over at both of them. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to go over a few things with some of my friends." With that, Harry walked out of the Kitchen and up to Ron and his room from the previous year.

He walked into the room and found Ron and Hermione sitting next to each other on a bed with Ginny standing next to Hermione, and all three of them falling over with laughter as the twins were telling what looked to be a story of a recent prank.

"Harry!" Fred said when he finally saw Harry standing in the doorway.

"Come in, come in, we wouldn't want anyone getting wind of our recent discoveries," Gorge said.

"Well then I guess I don't have to ask how things are going. Of course, you _were_ contacted by someone today… weren't you?"

The two twins stared with their mouth's wide open. Harry heard Ginny laugh and looked over at her, smiling. "You know, if you keep that up your going to swallow a fly," she said.

Gorge was the first to come out of his revere. "Harry!" He yelled, smiling.

"That was you?" Fred asked.

"And all day we thought that some else liked our theme."

"Never thought the possibility of just having the same someone like it."

"Although, it was a very good deal on your part."

"Yes, we gave you 25% of the company because of the money that your goblin agreed to give us."

"We're happy it wasn't someone else though."

"Yeah, now we know who the money is going to, we're happy its you." They finished.

Harry rubbed his head. "You two have to stop doing that…" the twins laughed when everyone else agreed.

"Harry," Hermione said, "_you_ were the one to start all of this?"

He nodded. "How did you give them the money in the beginning then?" Ron asked him.

"They knew I have money, even though I am the wealthiest wizard in all of Britain," everyone gaped at him, "yeah, it's unbelievable, I know. Anyway, when I won the money for the tri-wizard tournament, they made me a deal."

"And we are going to keep that deal, Harry," Fred said.

"Even more-so than before now, mate," Gorge put in.

"So," Ron said, "what was the meeting about, anyway?"

Everyone leaned in to listen to Harry. "Nothing really. Basically, I am in the Order, but only for the information part. I'm not allowed to go on any of the outings they have or do anything of substance."

"They let you in."

"They let someone not even of AGE in."

"And they won't let us in."

"Never even thought twice about it."

"This is so-"

"Not-"

"FAIR!" the twins screamed, ending in sync at the end.

"Well, life's not always fair," Harry said looking down at the floor.

Ginny looked at him in concern, wanting to comfort him, but not in front of everyone. "Harry, would you like to see Buckbeak?" she asked him.

He looked up and smiled at her. "I would like that. Thank you, Ginny."

She nodded and headed out to the hallway. They made it to Sirius' room and found that no one was following them. Ginny took Harry's hand and opened the door, pulling him into her as they shut the door. "I'm sorry, Harry. My brothers don't know. If they did, they wouldn't have said those things…" she raked his long hair with her fingers.

"Thanks Ginny," he sighed into her hair, squeezing her tighter to him. He wanted to kiss her right now, so he pulled back and looked into her eyes. "You are so amazing." She blushed, turning Harry on even more, then leaned in to kiss him.

It was a passionate kiss. They pulled each other close and let their hands roam before they were interrupted by a load huff of breath and ruffle of feathers.

Harry laughed and pulled away, smiling at Ginny before turning to see Buckbeak. He bowed and waited for the hippogriff to return the favor, which it did a few seconds later. He walked up. "Good to see you, Buckbeak. I'm sorry I haven't been here… if you can be nice with a griffin, I will try to get you out of here, ASAP." The hippogriff huffed and fluttered his wings again.

"A griffin?" Ginny whispered from behind.

Harry turned and smirked at her. "I'll introduce you. He won't gobble you up, no worries."

She blushed again turned away. Harry moaned. "That is so, _sexy, _Ginevra," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

This forced her to look up at him, slightly dazed, and blush further. "What are you going to do about it, Harry?"

_I know what I want to do about it… wait, what are you doing? This is Ginny! She's Ron's sister! She's like your sister! No, she so is not like my sister… and she makes me happy… _Harry leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. "Ginevra," he whispered, sending chills up Ginny's spine. "Would you do me the honors of being my girlfriend?"

She looked into the green eyes, slightly hidden behind glasses, getting lost in them. Finally, this day had come. She had given up on this day, and thought for a fleeting moment that morning that last night might have just been a fluke, she had been a convenient shoulder to cry on. No, it certainly wasn't, and she was thankful that the boy she loved had finally realized she was there. "I thought you would never ask…" she said, leaning up to kiss him.


	9. Welcomings

Once Harry and Ginny were able to extract themselves from each other (with some difficulty) Harry told Ginny a little bit about the meeting. It was sneaky, but Dumbledore never said that Harry couldn't tell Ginny anything, only Ron and Hermione. That was how he justified it at least. Ginny wasn't surprised that Harry had slightly flipped out, but she was very interested in Snape's little tidbit on Voldemort's head hurting last night. "Where you… Happy last night, Harry?" She asked, not asking what she really wanted to ask him. _Did you feel _love_ last night, Harry?_

Harry nodded not looking at her. "Amongst other things…" they were petting Buckbeak and Harry grabbed Ginny's hand to hold, not letting go. "It was an unusual feeling last night, powerful and… fulfilling. I don't remember ever feeling it before."

Ginny looked at him, trying to understand. That sounded like what she had felt also. She thought it was lust… and love. _Bloody hell, Ginny. Just say it. You practically said it last night, just do it again._ "That sounds… a lot… like, well… love." She stared at his face, gauging his reaction.

Harry stopped moving. _Was it love? Maybe. But that was just my first time with Ginny, well ever. How can I love her from that. _He got the answer when he looked at her face. _She's so beautiful and smart, that's how. And her hair, the small, the feel... _"...maybe."

Ginny smiled and was about to jump on him when there was a knock on the door and it opened. They quickly dropped each other's hand and looked at the person standing in the doorway. "I am sorry if I interrupted," the Professor said with a knowing look on her face, "but I was checking to see if Mr.- if _Harry_ had left without me."

Harry smiled. "That's alright, Professor. Actually, I have to go back without you to mend the wards so you can get in."

Professor McGonagall looked slightly shocked, yet very impressed. "You have planned this all out, haven't you, Harry?" Harry shrugged and ran his hand threw his hair, embarrassed. McGonagall chuckled. "Oh, Harry. You certainly are your father's son." She got a far away look in her eye as she remembered her favorite pupil. Oh, James and Lily certainly had stolen her heart. She had never had children, but she always thought of them as family, especially after they had graduated. Then she remembered, not for the first time that day, how she was in fact related to Harry. No, now was not the time to tell him. She walked out of the room, reminiscing.

Once she closed the door Harry turned back to Ginny. "I really do have to go… I will talk to you tomorrow though, alright?"

She looked slightly upset that her boyfriend had to leave so early, but sucked it up and gave him a lingering kiss that left much promise in it. Slowly she left the room. "I'll leave my room locked for you, Harry," she said before she closed the door.

Harry called for Dobby and left to make the amends to his wards list. He ran into Dudley and Griphook on the stairs. "Griphook! I'm clad to have caught you before you left. Would you like to stay for dinner this evening? Professor McGonagall from Hogwarts will be joining us as well."

Harry saw Dudley get slightly nervous after Griphook agreed to stay for dinner. Harry laughed it off, going up stairs. Once he added the Professor to the wards, he and Dobby left together to get McGonagall for dinner.

"Professor?" Harry called into the kitchen. He had Dobby cleaning Ginny's room currently (the elf had insisted) and he was going to hide when Harry got back to the room. Winky was going to bring Professor McGonagall back for dinner.

Everybody said goodbye to Harry and the Professor as they left the room. "Harry, where are you going?" she asked when she saw him go to the stairs to leave.

He smiled at her. "We can't just go walking to my home, now can we?" Harry continued up the stairs with her following. She shot him a questioning look as they walked into Ginny's room.

"Professor, would you please make the room secure from unwelcome ears and an unwelcome eye?" he asked politely. She did so, but not without shooting Harry another look. "Alright. Thank you. Now, onto business." He cleared his throat. "I am sorry, Professor, but I will not allow you into my home without taking a few necessary repercussions first." He looked her in the eye. "I need you to promise that you will not tell anyone where I live. You cannot tell them who is living with me, nor may you hint toward anything that I have been doing this summer. Everything about my home must be secret unless I tell you otherwise."

"Harry," she began sternly, "I do think you are being a little-"

Harry cut her off. "Childish, professor? Stupid maybe?" His eyes were glowing slightly. "No, I don't think so. I have taken my home and safety of it into deep thought over the past week. Everything that I could do to protect myself and the others with me have been taken into consideration and have been planned out so that no one will be hurt in anyway when they are there. My house is quite possibly safer even than Hogwarts. You will not be allowed in unless you swear to my terms. I am sorry, but this is the way that it must be, Professor."

They waited a long minute until the Professor beamed at Harry. "Thank heavens. I knew you had some Lily in you, finally taking your life seriously." She took out her wand and pointed it at her heart. "I swear on all of my magic that I will abide by your said terms, Harry." There was a small yellow spell cast from her wand.

Harry smiled broadly. "Professor, you should smile more often. It is quite becoming." The elder woman's cheeks reddened slightly. Harry continued. "I hope you will not tell anyone nor put to use this practice too often, for it does use a large amount of energy. We will be arriving at my home by apparation, Professor. Dobby, you may come out now. Wink!" An elf popped soundlessly in front of Harry, and the other climbed out from under the bed.

"Is Harry Potters ready, sir?" Dobby asked.

Harry looked at his Professor who's mouth was open. "Professor, meet Winky and Dobby, my house elves. Winky will be apparating you to my home after Dobby and I."

"House elves can side apparate?" She asked Harry. He smiled and nodded. "Potter, not even your father or god father, nor myself had realized this. I can only imagine the trouble they would have caused if they had known…"

This made Harry laugh. He turned to Dobby. "Alright, Dobby. I'm ready when you are." Dobby grabbed his arm lightly and pulled him home.

Harry looked around. "Dobby, why are we at the gate?"

Dobby answered him quickly. "Harry Potters and Sir Dudley is the only ones to apparates into the house, sir. Harry Potters needs to say his Professor's name befores she apparates in, sir."

"Professor Minevra McGonagall is welcome in my home," Harry said. Not three seconds later, Winky and McGonagall appeared outside the open gate. They walked forward into the driveway. As the gates shut, Pugnar appeared out of no where. He was gazing into McGonagall's eyes and she started trembling as he walked closer, neither blinking. "Pugnar, STOP!" Harry screamed, fearing the griffin would tear her apart before his eyes. Pugnar stopped, reluctantly, and looked at Harry. "Good Boy."

He ran over to Professor McGonagall and steadied her. "Are you alright, Professor?"

"I'm alright, Harry," her voice was shaky and she stuttered slightly. "Your griffin is quite im-impress-sive. I just don't see myself dying everyday is all."

"Lucky you…" Harry muttered. McGonagall looked on in concern. "No matter, lets go eat. I would like to introduce you to some people anyway." Harry looped his arm gently through McGonagall's, feeling slightly awkward but supportive nonetheless.

Harry opened the door. "Thank you, Harry," she said smiling fondly at the man. She gasped as an animal suddenly jumped up onto his chest. "Professor, please meet my Prymal, Ruffy. Ruffy, this is Professor McGonagall." Ruffy squirmed in Harry's arms and somehow managed to give Professor McGonagall a very surprising lick on the cheek.

She laughed. "It's nice to meet you, Ruffy. Harry, how ever did you get a Prymal? They are so rare… is there a purpose for you having him? Or his he just like a dog?"

"Well, he's more treated like a family member than anything." He laughed as Ruffy licked him. "And he hogs all of the pillows too." Ruffy jumped out of his arms and skipped down the hall. He looked at Professor McGonagall to find her deep in thought, staring at him. "Is something the matter, Professor?"

She hesitated. "I am not sure if now is the time to inform you of this, but I was told to never mention this to you as Dumbledore thought that you might want to leave your Aunt's home. It is quite clear, however, that you _did_ in fact leave your aunt's home and it was of your own decision making, so now I think that you have a right to know something regarding your family, Harry." She guiltily looked down at the floor, for the first time ever Harry saw shame on his Professors face. "You have to understand that I was told not to tell you for your safety, but, I am related to you."

"You- What?" Harry stumbled over his words. _What is going on? I'm related to McGonagall?_

She looked into his eyes, ones that represented Lily's so much. "Yes, I am sorry, Harry. I didn't want you to go with your Aunt, and I made myself quite clear. But Dumbledore said that the best way to protect you would be using your mother's blood line to protect you, as it was her love that the spell was based on. I was your father's mother's cousin."

Harry let the words sink in. _Okay, so I'm related to McGonagall. Why would she never tell me before? Didn't she realize how horrible it was with the Dursley's? No, Dumbledore said not to tell. McGonagall has always been considerably nicer to me than others… and it wasn't because of fame. She was just more… attentive. Should I be mad about this? No. No, I don't want to be mad about this. I just gained family. I'll never get mad about that. _He smiled at her. "Alright, Aunt Minnie."

Harry's Aunt beamed at him. "Harry, that is just the thing your father would call me in private." Harry grinned. "Thank you for not being upset." She studied him. "It seems that you have been taking your god father's passing well…?"

Harry's face crumpled. No one had mentioned Sirius today. His eyes got watery and his throat burned and closed. He tried to form a sentence but ended up just nodding his head. _Don't cry now. Not in front of people… but she's not just any person, she's your Aunt… _

"It's okay, Harry. It's hard loosing someone you love…" His Aunt pulled him toward her and embraced him in a hug. Harry took a few deep breathes, letting Aunt Minnie calm him. She pat his back and whispered soothing words until he returned the hug and then moved away.

"Thanks, Aunt Min," he whispered. He cleared his throat and dried his eyes, slightly embarrassed. "Anyway," he smiled at her, "I think it is time to meet the other guests for dinner?"

Before McGonagall had a chance to reply, Harry grabbed her arm and led her to the kitchen. "Dudley, Griphook, please meet my Aunt Minnie, also known as Professor McGonagall in Hogwarts. Aunt Min, meet my personal assistant, Griphook, and my cousin/brother, Dudley." Everyone in the room had a slightly surprised look on their faces except for Harry who was smirking as he pulled out a chair for the Professor.

Professor McGonagall stared, quite confused at the other two sitting at the table. She was shocked initially when Harry introduced the goblin as a personal assistant, but she started to think over it and figured it was to be expected as it was something so unexpected and that seemed to be the road that Harry traveled these days. The other surprise was the introduction of Dudley. The last she could remember, Harry had had a very poor relationship with the family. No matter, she thought. She thanked Harry as she sat and smiled at the other two, saying hello.

Griphook immediately hit it off with Professor McGonagall. Dudley sat next to Harry and participated in the conversation, but mostly used the conversation as a learning experience, asking Harry the meaning of many terms that came up throughout dinner. Everyone was immensely enjoying themselves. Both Harry and Dudley felt that it was a new welcome event, having guests over for dinner. They smiled at each other a few times when the others asked Dudley and Harry about things concerning the Muggle world.

Dinner passed much too quickly, and soon it was time for Griphook to leave. Harry saw him to the door as Dudley and Aunt Minnie moved outside where Dobby promptly prepared the fire pit. "I had a wonderful time this evening, Harry. I have to say, you have changed many of my views of the wizarding world this past week."

Harry smiled at the goblin. "Well, you have to move with the times, doncha?" The two laughed and Harry found himself becoming more comfortable with the goblin's smile. "Anyway, I appreciate you brining over the things today, Griphook. You saved me a bunch of work."

Griphook nodded. "It's my pleasure, Harry. I would like you to know that I took the trunks and similar objects from all of your vaults, not only the Potter one. I had to expand the room which you wanted them placed, but I think you will find that it is to your liking."

Harry thanked the goblin. "You didn't have to do that, Griphook. But thanks." Griphook nodded. "Also, I wanted to express my condolences once again. I know that Bognok will make a great president of Gringott's though, and also a great leader for your people."

The goblin shook Harry's hand as they reached the front gate and waited for it to open. "It is much appreciated, Harry. I will be picking you up on Tuesday around three if that is possible?" Harry agreed. Before Griphook popped away he looked at Harry and reluctantly told him he should wear some nice black dressing robes.

Harry walked back into the house and was surprised to hear laugher greet his ears. He was in the living room shortly afterward watching his new Aunt and brother of a cousin sitting together and amiably talking with each other. Harry sat on a chair facing them and joined the conversation.

Before McGonagall left Harry's new home, one that she now whole-heartily liked, Harry took her to see his parents' portrait. The four spent almost an hour just chatting, and Aunt Minnie was very happy as she left with Harry walking her to the front gate.

"Aunt Min?"

The Professor found herself becoming fond of the new pet name Harry had adopted her with. "Yes, Harry?"

Harry smiled at her before teasing her slightly. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that I was very happy that you decided to take my advise. It seems there is a first time for everything." He saw the confused expression she gave him and chuckled. "I meant that you have been smiling all day long."

The professor blushed again. "Yes well, it seems your smiling has rubbed off on me, Harry." The front gates opened and Aunt Min wrapped Harry into a hug which was gratefully returned. "I have wanted to tell you for so long now, Harry…"

"I understand, Aunt Min." He pulled out of the hug and stopped her before she apparated away. "Are you coming for dinner again tomorrow?"

Again, McGonagall had not expected this. She grinned at Harry. "I would love to, Harry. Tonight was wonderful."

"Alright, tomorrow then? Would you mind going to a muggle restaurant for dinner?"

Aunt Min agreed to come tomorrow around five and said one last good bye before leaving.

Harry turned and Pugnar landed near him. "Hey boy, how was your day?" Pugnar huffed at him. "I'm sorry. I know we haven't spent much time together… hey, I'm not even that tired tonight. Lets go flying, boy." Pugnar seemed to hop slightly, showing excitement. "Would you mind if I brought a friend along with me?" Pugnar shook his head. "Alright, thanks boy." Harry called out loudly for Hedwig. A few minutes later, the owl flew gracefully to Harry and landed on his out stretched arm. He pet her affectionately. "Hey girl. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going flying for a while with me and Pugnar?" Hedwig bobbed her head, also excited. "Great. Just let me changed into Feathers, if you don't mind." Hedwig hooted, happy, and flew into the air to wait for them.

Once Harry was changed into his form, he and Pugnar took off to meet Hedwig in the sky. It was a beautiful night. Harry found that he had no problems seeing anything even thought it was very dark out. The three flew together above the trees, singing to each other. Hedwig taught Harry how to twirl gracefully in the air and Pugnar was able to be a great example on how to fly faster and with more strength.

They flew the entire grounds before expanding out onto what Harry thought were his two other properties. Pugnar seemed to know the boundaries which were very surprising to Harry. He had apparently owned much more land here than he previously thought. There was a lake behind a home that was more like a mansion. That also seemed very abandoned. The other house they passed had a magnificent garden, although it was unkept. It seemed that Harry owned almost an entire mountain as well.

Miles and miles they flew, but they were high in the air, so the land passed quickly under them. Harry's head was spinning at the idea of owning so much property. _I'll have to look into that later._

They finally completed their trip and all landed on Harry's balcony. Harry transformed back into himself and turned to his two pets. "I had a really great night tonight. Thanks." The two seemed to respond in much the same way. Harry opened the door to let Hedwig in. He turned back to Pugnar. "Hey boy, why don't you sleep up here tonight? There is more than enough room on the balcony." Pugnar liked the idea and expressed his thanks by shoving his head into Harry's chest and gently rubbing against it. Harry laughed and after petting Pugnar for quite sometime, returned to his room.

He really was quite tired from the trip. He took a quick shower and removed his contacts, replacing them with glasses. He stood in front of the mirror and looked over his body. He did look slightly different from when he was in school. He changed his hair back to the knew, shorter style that he and Ginny both liked. He smiled at the thought of Ginny. _She is something._

Harry made it back to his bed and checked his phone. Noticing a text message he opened it. '_Harry, I hope your day went well. You'll have to tell me about it tomorrow. I'll see you soon, hopefully. Good night.'_ Harry fondly wrote back to Ginevra expressing his happy mood and how he wanted to see her ASAP as well.

Ruffy jumped up on the bed as Harry removed his glasses, phone, and wand and put them all on the night table. He said good night to Ruffy, who ruffed good night in response.

***

_Houses were on fire. There was screaming everywhere. Harry erupted a satanic laugh at the sight of a small girl crying on the street. "Don't worry little girl. You and the rest of you non magical scum will go back were you should be. The ground. AVADA KADAVRA!" The girl fell limp to the floor. He laughed again._

_There was a young man with a wand running towards a Death Eater, screaming. Harry dueled with the Death Eater before being hit with an unforgivable that his shield wouldn't block, left to screaming on the floor. _

_Harry erupted another laugh at the sight and turned to another home sending fire at it. A family was screaming and in tears as they ran out of the home, pleasuring him further. He turned and saw the man dueling with the Death Eater again. "I will have to teach them how to duel quicker." He walked over to the two. _

_The man was bleeding from multiple wounds and had one arm hanging limp to his side. All firing stopped as he made his way closer. "And who do we have here?" The Death Eater bowed and backed away, giving him the floor. "Well?" he asked the man again._

_The man was trembling. "You bastard! You murder my friends and expect me to answer you!? I will defeat you! You will pay!" He gasped in pain as he was shot with another Crucio. Harry laughed with glee as the man was tortured in the dirt._

_Suddenly dread filled Harry as Aurors popped out. "LEAVE!" he screamed angrily in his high pitched voice. _

Harry gasped and shot up, covered in sweat. "Fuck!" He said. His forehead was hurting terribly and slightly bleeding. Ruffy was looking very concerned at Harry, covering his hand in licks. "I'm alright boy. Voldemort was just a little too happy is all. I do want to see what happened to that man though..." Harry stood out of bed and checked the time. 3:18 AM. He had a bad feeling that that man lived alone and had nothing left to go to. He couldn't just leave him like that.

Harry pulled on a shirt and pants and went into the bathroom to put contacts in and change his eyebrows slightly so no one would recognize him. He zipped up one of his more American jackets from Abercrombie & Fitch. He found his black baseball cap and tugged that on as well. He grabbed his things from the night stand. Quickly he texted Dudley's phone and told him there was an attack and he was going to see if there was anything he could do at the hospital.

Harry pulled on his Doc Martins and laced them quickly. After grabbing his invisibility cloak and the keys he made his way out of the house.

He sped all the way to London. No one was out, it being so early. At one point Harry felt the urge to slow down, and did. After a minute he passed a cop car. _Well that's handy._

Harry found the old abandoned place and parked his car not far from it, locking it and running to the building. He remembered how to get into the hospital from when Mr. Weasley was in St. Mungo's.

He entered the building and found it to be in complete havoc. It was startling to see so many people hurt, mostly with burns. He found an abandoned corner and threw on his invisibility cloak. He decided that it would be best to just check the emergency rooms first, so he started on the first floor.

There were many people there, some of which were obviously muggles. A few children were also being treated, but Harry didn't let his thoughts linger on the sad subject. He had a tough time not getting sick when ever he could remember the glee he had felt, killing the innocent little girl. _No! It wasn't me! That was Voldemort! The sick, twisted fuck! That was not me._

Harry finally found the man he had seen from the fight. He quietly made way into the small room as to not alert the the healer or young man of his presence.

"… but you should take the green potion every half hour until you feel better. You should be able to leave in an hour or two, but you won't be fully recovered until tomorrow evening most likely." He nodded. The healer placed three bottles on the table next to the man and made his way out of the room. Harry stood in the door way and quickly threw off his cloak, stuffed it in his shirt, and shut the door.

"Um… hi?" The man said, obviously tired.

Harry stood next to him briefly and stuck out his hand. "Hey I'm James. Would you mind talking for a minute or two?"

The man gave him a weak shake. "Sure. The names Richie Turner."

Harry sat down and sighed. "How are you feeling?"

"Suckish. How am I supposed to feel? _HE_ hit me with the criciatus curse."

Harry nodded. "Do you have any family or anyone like that who you were living with?" Rickie shook his head. "What has happened to your home? Can it be fixed?"

Richie sighed this time. "No, I'm afraid the damage done was so severe that they won't be able to fix it. Damn. And I just got bloody laid off also." He rubbed his face in his hands. " I have no idea what I'm going to do…"

Harry stared at the man, wondering if he was doing the right thing. He decided he needed more information. "How old are you, Richie?"

"Turning seventeen in October."

_Wait, what? How is he not in Hogwarts?_ "Do you go to school?"

"No, it's a long story, but I learned magic before the normal age and turned down my offer at Hogwarts in favor of being home tutored by someone I had met."

Harry looked over at Richie. "I have time, if you are willing to tell me about it." And so, Richie started his life story.

Harry found that he had a great respect for Richie. His parents had died when he was three years old and he was forced into an orphanage. There was little of anything there, and soon more kids had entered his orphanage when he turned six. One of the kids tortured and bullied Richie so badly that he ran away a month later.

Richie found himself wandering into a small restaurant with a nice waitress. Her name was Kara, a young 20 year old who immediately took to Richie. Neither Kara nor Richie realized the other was a wizard. Actually, Richie didn't know that he himself was a wizard until one fateful day the week after Kara took him in. Kara was tickling Richie to no end when all of the sudden, Richie had sent a tickling charm at Kara and she was being tickled to no end.

Apparently, Kara was a wizard who had been through Hogwarts. Her entire family had also died at the hands of Voldemort, following Dumbledore. Kara felt similar to the way Harry did. That Dumbledore was extremely controlling and manipulative. She immediately went to Whisper Ally and got Richie an illegal wand. "What do you mean illegal?" Harry asked.

"Kara knew the wand maker personally and requested that it didn't have an underage charm on it." Richie continued with his story. He would read and do other similar activities when Kara was at work, and then she would help him with his wand work when she got home. He also made potions which they ended up selling to some stores to make money for ingredients for other potions. Richie began making harder and harder potions until he was able to make even the Wolfsbane potion at the age of fifteen.

After he had finished most of his subjects by the time Richie was twelve, he and Kara decided it was best if he kept studying everything he could. He was so advanced by that age that they could only buy more books and not just reuse the books that Kara had once used in school. When he turned fourteen, Kara was getting married and he decided to move out. He was able to keep a stead job and also make money on the side by brewing potions.

Harry was very impressed by the end of the story. It was almost 5:00 by the time Richie had finished everything. "Why did you want to know everything about me, anyway?"

Harry looked Richie over. He looked him straight in the eye and made the decision. "I needed to know if you had what it takes to keep a secret like the one I am going to tell you and also if you would be able to help me. I think you would be able to." Harry shifted his position. "Could you cast a silence charm quickly?" Richie did so without question. "Alright. My real name is Harry Potter."

Richie gasped and looked at Harry's forehead. Harry moved his hat so Richie could see the scar. "Wow, your really him!"

"Yup. Anyway, I know you wanted to get revenge, and I just had the strange instinct that you would be able to help me somehow, someway. If you are willing to, then I will let you move into my home and just train all summer with myself and my cousin. We will be training to defeat Voldemort."

Richie shuddered at his name, but nothing else. "What do you mean, live with you? You mean like in your home?" Harry nodded. He could tell that Richie was getting excited. "I think that's a great idea!" He became mad. "That bastard won't know what hit him after me and you… I don't really have anywhere to go anyway…" he looked embarrassed. "Nor do I have… any… money…?"

Harry understood. "No, that's not a problem. I've got enough for eighty life times of not working, so I don't mind sharing." He looked him over. "Are you sure you are willing to do this."

"I have never been more sure in my life." They looked at each other until Harry finally smiled. Richie grinned back. "I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship."


	10. Learning

Richie and Harry talked a little bit more until it became apparent that Richie was too tired to do anything more. Harry decided that it would be best if he just stayed in there until Dudley was awake and they were able to go over things concerning Richie. After Richie fell asleep, Harry took out his iPhone and started listening to some music, playing around with the phone. It didn't take long for Harry to being searching stupid things online. He wondered if there were websites made by wizards. He thought about things that were magical that he never knew before being in the world of magic. _Hmm… well, Ruffy is a Prymal and I've never heard about those before._ He googled "Prymal" and was very surprised that some websites came up.

He was engulfed in this knew discovery. There was an American website dedicated to magical things. At the bottom of the website it explained that if you had no first hand knowledge of the magical world, or if you weren't a wizard or witch that you wouldn't be able to access any of the information with websites of a similar '.mag' in the URL.

Prymals are apparently known to making people they are around happier and also being peace to their homes. They were a bunch of different potions that needed Prymal hair, nail clippings, teeth (which were lost and grew back almost every month), or saliva.

Invigorated, Harry searched for any website that contained '.mag'. Some of the websites would prove to be very helpful. One of them was even dedicated to 'You-Know-Who' and his latest attacks and followers. There was so much information that Harry couldn't decide what he wanted to read about first. He chose to learn what he could about Prymals, Griffins, and Hippogriffs since he owned those creatures.

An Auror came in around 6:45 and informed Harry that there was nothing left to Mr. Turner's home, except for a box which Harry took and left on his bed. Finally, at 8:30 Dudley texted Harry back and Harry called him.

"Hey, D, I have some news."

"Yeah, I know, a village was attacked. It was on TV also. They have no idea what happened, but it was really bad. 23 dead and 59 injured."

Harry grimaced, remembering the girl. He shook his head. "Alright, but I have to tell you something. I saw what was going on through my scar and came here to the hospital to meet with someone I had seen. His names Richie Turner. He lost everything in the fire, and wants revenge on Voldemort, big time."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. So, I couldn't just let him go on with nothing… so I offered him a place to stay at our house if he helped us out…?"

There was dead silence.

"D?"

"Is this a good idea, Harry?"

"I think it is, mate. I mean, I'm just going with my gut on this one. He's really nice too. I think he would make a fine addition."

"Alright…" he sounded hesitant. "If you say it's okay, then I trust you. When is he coming?"

"I think a little later this morning. He was hurt though, so he has to rest for a day or two. Oh, can you please add his name to the list? It's in my room in a folder. Write down Richie Turner with a quill and ink on my desk."

"Alright. Are you in London? I think we need some more food."

"Yeah, just text me a short list or what we need."

"Alright. Be safe, Feathers."

Harry laughed. "Thanks Aced. Later."

"Bye."

Harry hung up the phone and looked at Richie. He felt a pang of sadness for the boy. He remembered what it was like, not having family. But then again, at least he had _someone_. Now him and Dudley were closer than ever and he could only hope that they would be able to give that to Richie also. He seemed like a really great kid. Not only that, but Harry couldn't help but feel like he had known him for a while.

Richie just lost everything he had. All he had was what was on his back at the time. Pity swelled Harry. He noticed Richie's clothes on the table. Walking over to them he found a lump that felt like a phone in the jeans pocket. Harry took it out, thanking Richie for having a cell phone, and hoping he wouldn't get mad. He called his phone, then added both numbers to each others phones. He left him a message saying he was getting him clothes and also texted him the same. Harry checked the tags and made his way out to the city.

Harry pulled his hood on even over his head. He quickly pulled into a clothes store and bought everything he could find that was in the same size Richie's clothes had been. He was sure that Richie would have never bought those clothes before, but expense wasn't a big deal so Harry didn't mind if Richie didn't.

Next he quickly went and fetched all of the groceries Dudley requested and some extra things that he was sure they would need later on in the week.

Once he finished that he noticed it had taken about an hour. He was on his way back to St. Mungo's and received a call from Richie. "Hello?"

"Hey, Har-"

"Wait! Don't call me Harry in public! Call me Feathers," Harry interrupted.

"Alright. Well, I'm ready to leave now, Feathers. I'm checking out in a minute. How did you get my phone, anyway?"

"I hope your not mad about that…"

"No, no, just curious is all."

"Oh, well I felt it in your pocket and decided you needed some clothes and left. Alright, just go outside and I'll pick you up and we'll head home. An auror stopped by also… the only thing left was that box that I put on your bed. I'm sorry, Richie."

"Ah, I didn't have much anyways. Alright, I need my hands. Bye."

"Later."

Harry was just pulling up to the front of St. Mungo's when he saw Richie coming out. He honked his horn and Richie walked slowly over. Once he got in the car, Harry made his way over to the cell phone store he and Dudley had gotten their phones from. "Alright there, Richie?"

He gave a pained smile at Harry. "Can't say I haven't been better…"

Harry chuckled. "I know what you mean mate. So, your phone is being paid monthly?"

"Yeah, but now that I'm moving in with you, I'll have to change my residency and everything…"

Harry looked at him. "I think you should just cancel your phone contract. I'm getting you a 5 year pre-paid one right now." They pulled up to the store.

"Seriously?" Richie's eyes were wide open.

"Sure."

A half an hour later the two were back in the car. "You have really good taste in phones, you know that?"

Richie laughed. "Hey, I didn't even know that you had an iPhone until after you bought me mine. Thanks again, Feathers!" Harry told him to stop saying thank you. "Where did you get the name Feathers from anyway?"

"Oh you know… animagus is a bird and all… so it just seemed to fit." He laughed when Richie's jaw dropped. "I thought you were magically superior in every way, Richie?" Harry teased.

"Seriously? Animagus? -Wait, hey! I never said I was magically superior! I can't help it if I just don't like playing by the rules. It seems neither do you, so I don't think you can say much about anything, Feathers."

The bickering continued until they were on Harry's street. "I, Harry James Potter, grant Richie Turner access to my home." Harry pulled into the opening gates. "Don't get out of the car yet." Harry parked the car and opened his door. "Pugnar!" A few seconds later, Pugnar was in front of the car, staring through the windshield at Richie. "Pugnar! No. This is my friend in the car, his name is Richie. You treat him like a friend, he won't hurt us." Pugnar huffed and looked at Harry. "No, Richie's nice. He is moving in with us." Harry opened the door and helped Richie get out, who was still in shock from the death stare. "Alright there, Richie?"

"Uh- Hu-" He cleared his throat and his cheeks colored. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm- I'm good." He smiled nervously.

Ruffy ran out and jumped into Harry's arms, licking his face. "Ruffy, this is Richie. Richie, this is Ruffy, our Prymal."

"Woah, a Prymal, a griffin, what else do you have? Geez, you weren't joking when you said you had money to spare." Just then, Dobby and Winky popped out and were also introduced to a wide-eyed Richie, who also requested not to be referred to as Master. The elves brought the things up to the room next to Harry's and across from Dudley's.

Harry led Richie up to the house. When they reached the deck, Dudley came out and greeted them. "Dudley, this is the guy I was telling you about, Richie. Richie this is my cousin/brother, Dudley, aka Ace." They all made their way inside, Dudley and Richie making small talk.

"Did you eat yet, D?" Harry asked.

"No, I was just going online and catching up with some emails this morning. Mum and Dad said hi."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, sure they did."

Dudley shrugged. "Well, there loss that they're asses."

They sat at the kitchen and Dudley and Harry noticed how worn out Richie looked. "Hey, why don't you go up to sleep after breakfast? You've had a rough night…"

The three ate in silence after that, each lost in their own thoughts. When they finished, Harry showed Richie to his new room, which Richie promptly changed the color of to a beige color and the bed to black, and the floor to a white carpet. All in all it looked really nice after.

Richie took two swigs of a potion, then one swig of another and clambered into the bed. "If you need anything, just call for Winky. She would be more than happy to help you with anything. Try to stay in bed though, your arm still looks like its bothering you and I know how painful Voldemort's crucio is."

Richie nodded, then turned on his side and fell fast asleep.

Harry went down stairs and did his routine work out with Dudders. When they finished they decided to have an early lunch. They were discussing the magical world when Dudley brought something up. "Feathers, what were those two things that attacked us last year?"

"Those were dementors. Nasty creatures. They'll suck your soul out if you don't know how to protect yourself from them."

"Oh…" Dudley was thinking again, then asked Harry another question. "Are they related to ghosts or something?"

Harry looked at Dudley. "Why would you think that?"

Dudley shrugged. "Just the way they were floating was creepy. I thought they were ghosts."

"Yeah b- Wait, you could _see_ them?" Dudley nodded. "But- But your not magical! You can't see them, unless…" Harry could only think one thing, considering Dudley wasn't a wizard. "Your a squib."

D's face scrunched up. "A what?"

"Squib. They are magical people who can't preform magic. They're only born in magical families though, so I don't know how you would be one. Of course, my mum was a witch and would have known if there was anyone else in her family that was magical probably, but I doubt that your mum would know."

He laughed. "Well, there was that one time when mum spoke of her Uncle Harry being a freak, but I've never heard of him since…" He looked at Harry. "Maybe I am a squib."

They finished up and thanked Dobby and Winky for a pleasurable lunch. "Want to get some work done then?"

Harry and Dudley were walking up the stairs. "Yeah, but since your a squib, I guess you can have a language lozenge. They'll probably work on you, but I don't think they would work on a muggle." They were in Harry's room after checking in on a sleeping Richie. Harry got out his box of lozenges and took one to Dudley also. He opened up his as Ace watched. "Okay, so this is how it works. You take a lozenge," he dug around and took out the 'Greek' lozenge. "Then you unwrap it and pop it in." He popped it in his own mouth. "You look around and can name things in the language you choose. I just had a Latin one the other day, today it's Greek. You have to wait three days though, else you will get confused."

Dudley opened up his box. "Which do you 'recon I should try first?" They sifted through the box.

"Well, do you want a language that you can use around here? Because then you should start with all the European ones. I just thought that I'd do the Latin one first, you know, because most spells are from Latin. This one I just randomly picked." Harry shrugged. "Why not learn something like Italian first? In case we want to put the house there to use…?"

Dudley smiled. "That would be a nice trip. Especially since that's where my parents think I am right now." He popped in an Italian one and walked to his room to put his new gift away.

Harry put his box back in his drawer. He grabbed the Library book and a journal, walked back down to the study, telling Ace to meet him there. Once Harry was sitting, he started looking through the book for an interesting title. _Well, Ace will be reading something on potions, no doubt, do I don't really have to do that… Maybe I should just read something informative. Like an old book! I've never read any _really_ old books before, and there is bound to be one in here… _Harry flipped through a couple of pages until he found a book with a Latin title. _Mastering Magic_. Harry tapped it and watched the book's pages and ink change. Once it was finished, he flipped to the front and looked at the different things that were being dealt with in the book, and finally decided that it would be very beneficial to just read the entire thing.

Dudley had joined him not soon after, and just as Harry had predicted, was reading through a potions book. They both sat in silence, every once in a while Harry would answer a question for Dudley, but other than that they just kept reading.

Harry was completely engrossed in the book. He was having no trouble at all understanding it. The journal he brought down was getting fuller and fuller with every page he read. Everything was in this book. Harry learned that his magical core was like a muscle that could grow and be strained. He found that he could find his core easily through the descriptions in the book, something he had never thought about before.

There was also a chapter that had to do with organization of the mind. It told of how wizards could organize their mind much easier than muggles, and the importance of having an organized mind. It gave him simple instructions that would make mastering spells much easier while also making his memory much better.

The chapter that Harry found gave him the best information was of something he had never even given a thought to. Different magical languages. The old book told of how people in the East also did magic (Chinese and Japanese) but would do them with different spells that had slightly different effects than that of a Latin base. It told of the ways in which this could be extremely beneficial to a person, not only in learning more spells, but also in a duel to baffle an opponent. The expression "no two spells are the same" came into play.

Finally, around 3 o' clock, Harry had finished his book and Dudley was getting tired of reading. They both got up and stretched. "What do you feel like doing, D?"

Dudley shook his head. "I think I'm going to watch some telly. Not feeling like doing much today."

"Alright, just don't forget that Aunt Min is going to be coming back tonight for dinner." Harry went upstairs. He wrote a quick note to Aunt Min, asking her to arrive at the front gates around 6:30 if she could, then took a quick shower. Once he got out, he had some time to kill. Richie was still sleeping, and he found Dudley taking a nap on the couch. He pulled out his phone and texted Ginny.

Harry: _Hey Gin. Are you busy right now, or is it a good time for me to stop by and say hi?_

He waited a few seconds, and was impressed by the short amount of time it took for Ginny to reply.

Ginny: _No, Harry. Now would be a great time for you to come over. Why don't you bring me another book? I'm so bored here! All Ron and Hermione do is keep to themselves…_

Harry laughed then replied: _Sounds like a plan. I'll be over in a minute, just lock up your room for me?_

Ginny: _Sure. I just told the cards to silence it and lock it up._

Harry called out to Dobby as he reached his room again. "Yes, Harry Potters, sir?"

"Hey Dobby. Are you busy right now?" Harry had grabbed a box of the lozenges. _Well, Ron and Hermione would want some, I'm sure. Maybe not Ron, but Hermione would really enjoy them… And the twins would definitely like something like this… _He grabbed four more boxes. _I should get some more of those…_

"No, Harry Potters," Dobby snapped Harry out of his thoughts. "Dobbys would loves to dos some works for the Great Harry Potters!"

Harry laughed. "Alright then, Dobby. Just let me go get a book real quick and we'll go on over to Ginny's room?"

The little elf bounced up and down. "Of courses, Harry Potters sir! Dobbys would loves to brings Harry Potters to his Miss Ginny Weasleys!"

He laughed again and grabbed a book about magical artifacts that he thought had looked interesting in the private library. He also went into the Gryffindor trunk and duplicated the book he had read into a clear journal. He flipped through it and found that it had worked!

Once he was back in his room, he grabbed his glasses but left his hair the way he and Ginny liked it. _I'll just change it before I see anyone else._ "Alright Dobby. Would you be able to bring the boxes on my bed and the two books also?"

Dobby nodded and grabbed Harry's elbow. "Anythings for yous, sir."

Before he knew it, Harry was standing in Ginny's room with the boxes and books next to him, Dobby apparating back home instantly. He caught sight of Ginny throwing herself at him and had just enough time to move so he could hug her and twirl her around, just avoiding the both of them falling.

Ginny squealed. "Harry!"

He put her down on her feet. "Gin, it's so good to see you…" he grinned at her and she returned the favor.

"It was so boring here today. Mum was just making us do chores. Thank God I got out of there when I did, I swear, she'll have you going _all day._"

Harry laughed at her frustration. "Alright, Gin. Well, I'm here now, and I can't think of a single thing to do…"

Ginny mock frowned. "Not a single thing?" He playfully shook his head. "Well, I for one can think of one thing." Harry smiled and leaned into her kiss. Soon it became a full out battle between the two of who was the better kisser. Ginny moaned as Harry grabbed a handful of her silky hair and pulled her head back, kissing her neck.

Ginny grabbed his head and started kissing him again. She pushed him back until his knees were against the chair in her room, and pushed him into it, making him sit. She grabbed his shirt with both hands and pulled him to her as she straddled him on the chair.

Soon, when they were about to black out, they removed their mouths from one another, breathing deeply, staring at each other. Harry moaned. "Ginevra… must you blush in my presence? I know you blush all over… and it drives me crazy…" he said, kissing her neck between words.

Ginny laughed and stood up slowly, not really wanting to. "As much as I would love to stay in here all day with you, Harry, I do think that it would be rather embarrassing when Mum comes to get me in a few minutes."

Harry smiled and gave her one last kiss before they called to the cards to unlock the door, then made their way down stairs. He quickly changed his hair back to normal, then opened the door.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed as he walked into the kitchen.

Harry smiled as Hermione hugged him. "Her Hermione. How are you today?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Fred and Gorge happened to have the books for next year's curriculum, so I've been doing that."

Harry smiled at his friend. She really was a little too predictable at times. "Ron, mate, how are you today?"

Ron shrugged. "How good is a day where you clean the entire time…" he mumbled, then stood. "What have you been up to?"

Harry smiled. "Oh, this and that."

Ron was about to say something when Mrs. Weasley walked in and then gave Harry a big hug upon recognizing him. "Harry, how are you dear? Did you eat yet?"

He laughed. "Of course, Mrs. Weasley. I was wondering if I could ask you something?" He motioned to ask her in the other room. Everyone looked at him with curious glances, but he silently told them to wait a minute. "Mrs. Weasley, I was wondering if it would be alright if I took Ron, Hermione and Ginny to my house later this week? Say Thursday?"

Mrs. Weasley's eyebrow's scrunched together. Just as she was about to reply there was a loud *pop* and Fred and Gorge appeared in front of him. "Harry!" Fred said.

"You thought that you could just get away with taking our dear brother-" Gorge continued.

"And also our favorite sister-"

"On an adventure to your knew home-"

"With out taking your favorite twins with you?" They finished.

Harry looked between the two then laughed. "Of course you can come. I was going to ask after your mum agreed." He looked over at Mrs. Weasley with big, puppy dog eyes. "I have always wanted to have guests over at my house, but with my Aunt and Uncle…" he looked down and kicked the floor, doing his best impression of an unhappy orphan. "I was never really able to…. Not that I have ever had friends before Ron and Hermione…"

He could see the conflicted Mrs. Weasley giving in. When she looked away, Harry chanced a glance at the two stunned twins in front of him. He smirked, then quickly put on his puppy dog eyes again. "Well…" Mrs. Weasley's voice wasn't as strong as it usually was. "As long as they are safe… then I don't see why not."

Harry smiled in triumph and the twins high-fived and cheered. He quickly gave Mrs. Weasley a big hug. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley!" He quickly ran into the kitchen.

"What was that all about?" Ginny asked him.

"Oh… not much really. I just thought that you two might like to, you know, check out my house on Thursday…" He watched slowly as all three of them perked up and started smiling.

"That would be great!" Ron said.

"As long as we are safe, I don't see why not!" Hermione was just as excited as ever though.

"Where do you live, anyway?" Ginny asked.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, I can't really tell you that now, can I?" He smirked as Hermione opened up her mouth to tell him off. "_But_," he said, interrupting her thought. "I will be able to show you my home on Thursday when I come to get you." He looked at his nails, pretending not to not want to be bothered by questions. "I also have quite a few surprises for you…"

Everyone all at once started asking him questions about 'what surprise' and 'just tell us' and 'PLEASE?!?!?'. The twins were enjoying groveling in front of Harry when they walked in and noticed everyone else trying to get something out of him, even though they had no idea what the three youngsters wanted to know. Harry laughed. "Wait here, I have a surprise for you guys that I brought over." He quickly ran out of the room and sped into Ginny's. Once he grabbed the five boxes he ran back into the kitchen and tossed them on the table, one in front of everyone.

"What are these?" Hermione asked, examining the box.

"Those would be language lozenges. I figured you would all like them. They do work quite well. I've already had the latin one." Just to show off he spoke a few lines of Latin and everyone stared at him. "Yeah, and now I'm learning Greek, too. Only eat one every three days because if you have more then you will get your vocabulary all mixed up."

"What do these do?" Fred asked, now examining the little candies.

"They flavor your mouth with a vocabulary which you otherwise would not know because it would take too long to learn. Yes, there are spells for this, but if you ever meet a muggle you can't just preform the spell in front of them, so this works well for that. Also, you will be able to read the languages that you eat as well."

"Well, thanks!" Ginny said, smiling at him, now opening a Latin candy and placing it in her mouth. "Oh, it tastes like honey."

Hermione looked hesitant, but she too put the Latin one in her mouth, thanking Harry. The twins had no hesitation what so ever and just said a quick thanks and popped them in.

"Thanks a bunch, mate," Ron said. "Now, if I ever need to learn a language, I'll just eat some candy."

They all sat and talked briefly and Harry filled them in on the goblins. He asked that they not tell anyone, and they agreed. "I don't think you should be going alone though, Harry," Hermione put in.

Harry sighed. "I will _not_ be alone. In any case, Griphook will be with me most of the time besides when I am going to and from Gringotts, and even then I'll still have the cloak with me at all times."

Tonks swaggered into the room. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Tonks! It's so good to see you. Got a minute?" He gave her a quick hug and led her out of the room and into the sitting room. Mrs. Weasley was no longer in there. "Mind silencing the room?" Tonks did as he asked. "Thanks. Anyway, I've got something I've been wanting to show you since I realized I could do it."

Tonks was just about to ask what he was talking about when she gasped. Harry's hair was now down to his waist. "What- How- When?"

"I figured it out a few days ago. Only Ginny knows though." He smiled and Tonks jumped onto him, plowing him onto the floor in a rib cracking hug.

"I thought I would never meet another!" She sounded almost as if she were crying. "It's so lonely, being a metamorphagus. I can't believe I've actually had the chance to get to know you!!"

Harry patted her back. "That's alright Tonks. I just thought that you would like to know…"

"I do! Can't you see how much this means to me?" She looked at him. Her eyes were filled with tears. One rolled slowly down her cheek. "I just thought that I must be the only one in the world… but of course your a morpher, Harry. The bloody boy-who-lived. Of course the only other one I meet would be one of the most enigmatic people I have ever had the pleasure to meet." She hugged him again, then pulled him up off the floor. Harry turned his hair back to normal. "So, can you do anything else?"

"No, only change my hair length so far. I haven't really tired anything else…" He admitted.

"Okay, we'll just have to start training you then!" Tonks was really excited about this. "Tell me when and where and we'll make it happen."

"Wow, thanks Tonks. You don't have to do that."

She waved him off. "You don't know what it was like. I didn't have any friends until my sixth year at Hogwarts, and even then they only really liked me when I decided to be the perfect blonde with the perfect nose and the amazing blue eye color. Always treated like a chew toy," she spat. "Besides, you're the only one like me that I have ever met, so that gives us some kind of special bond, Harry. When can we meet, anyway?"

Harry thought. "What will you be doing next Monday?"

"I have to work the night shift, but other than that, nothing."

Harry smiled. "Well then, I'll pick you up from here on Monday."

They hugged one more time before Tonks put down the silencing charm and they walked back into the kitchen. "Alright, I should be going now." Harry said to the group.

"Already?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, sorry mate. I'll pick you all up on Thursday though, don't forget." He smiled, hugged Hermione one more time, said your welcome to the twins and promised Ron that he wouldn't change his mind before waving goodbye to Ginny and walking out and up to her room. Soon Ginny was there too.

"Do you really have to leave so early?" she asked him.

"Yeah, sorry. I'll pick you up on Thursday though. There is someone I would like for you to meet…" He kissed her quickly. "Oh, and read up on that book I brought. It's AMAZING. We should have to read it for school. It's in Latin though, so if you can't read it yet, just wait a few days. I promise you won't regret it."

Ginny smiled up and him and gave him one last lingering kiss. "I really wish we could do that more often."

"I agree…" he kissed _her_ one last time and called for Dobby. Waving goodbye one last time, Harry was apparated back into his house.


	11. UP FOR ADOPTION

Up for adoption!

Dear Readers,

Thank you for the reviews. I am sorry to say that I was in an accident while I was writing my stories. I do not feel the need to continue them, sadly. I apologize for the lateness, though my heart is warmed by the reviews you all gave.

If you would like to take over the story, I will take chapters for one week. Who ever I feel is the most capable of continuing the story and finishing it best, I will hand it over to them. I hope many of you will embrace the story and take heart the continuation of it, since I cannot.

Thank you,

McSlick


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